The continued debate about wearing masks during this COVID pandemic is getting extreme, from all directions. At the clinic, we wear a mask all day. I have patients complaining that they won’t come into the clinic if they see us all wearing a mask, and other patients who refuse to come into the clinic if we don’t mandate that everybody coming in wears one. We are in a no win situation. We continue to screen everybody at the door, with questions, and a temperature, if they have anything that my be suggestive of COVID, they are handed a mask, if they are not already wearing one, and triaged and taken to a room quicker.
I hear all of the time that masks really don’t work, so why wear them. You still have to continue to wash your hands, try to stay 6 feet apart, if possible, avoid crowded areas, and it is recommended to wear a mask. Many different researchers emphasize there are two main reasons for wearing a mask. There is some evidence of protection for the wearer, but the stronger evidence is that masks protect others from catching an infection from the person wearing the mask. How much protection a mask provides, both to the wearers, and to the people around them, depends on the mask, and whether you are wearing it properly. It needs to cover your nose and your mouth. N95 masks are designed to fit tightly around the nose and mouth so that the air you breathe has to go through the mask. They block at least 95% of small airborne particles, and are designed to protect both the wearer, and other people. They are in short supply and are reserved for those in healthcare. Surgical masks are designed to protect people from the wearer, and have been found to block up to 70% of respiratory droplet size particles. As for cloth masks, the protection depends on what they are made of, and how well they fit. But having the right combination can create a cloth mask that offers protection to the wearer in the 30-50% range, or more. That’s far from full protection, but combined with social distancing and hand washing, it’s certainly better than nothing.
And yet, everyday, people complain about it. This goes both ways, for those who refuse to wear them, and those that think everybody should have one on at all times, whether they are around somebody else or not. If you are outside, and maintaining social distancing, you do not have to wear one.
Last weekend, a bunch of us from our Watertown Area Running Club when to Brookings to either do the Marathon, or the Marathon Relay. Mask were required for the event. They were trying to make it as safe for everybody involved as possible, for not only the runners, but the people managing the event, and all of the volunteers.
When the race was started, everybody had to begin wearing a mask. Once you were spaced out more, you could remove them. We were far enough apart from each other, and we were outside. It was not difficult at all, and I heard nobody complaining about it!
The week before, we had all gone out to Caribou for coffee afterwards. Mask were required to be there. All of us had them on. If it meant we were going to be able to get coffee, and relax a little bit, so be it. And be as safe as we could at the same time!
I am sure somebody will have some negative comments if they read this far into today’s post. One thing I have found is that this virus had tended to show a lack of kindness in people as well. Kindness is not doing something for someone else because they can’t, but doing something for someone else because you can. Wearing a mask shows that you actually care about the people around you. In a world full of people right now who couldn’t care less, be someone who couldn’t care more. Kindness is contagious too. Why don’t we try passing this on to everybody for a change?
Instead of complaining about it, why don’t you have fun with it? Be creative on the designs. Be funny. We are all in this together whether we want to be or not. We may only know our own situations, but somebody else’s situation may be even worse. Think about it? What can you do to make it better? Or is it just easier to keep complaining and taking it out on someone else? Care about somebody else! Kindness–let’s make this become the next pandemic! Keep moving everybody, and be safe!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise of New Streak # 539
