It's Not About You

As we reopen society, we try to do so safely. COVID19 is not gone, and it could surge again if we are not careful. To avoid that occurrence, we are taking precautions. Symptom and temperature screening, lots of hand cleansing, hardcore environmental disinfection, and mandatory face masks in public areas.

Face masks seem to get a lot of push back. We have seen people on the news spitting on officials who asked them to put one on. It doesn't help when the leader of the country refuses to wear one. I have heard a number of visitors in my hospital complaining that they don't need one. They will not get sick, they are tough, and they cannot understand why the medical center requires them. They seem to think masks are a power trip, a mark of weakness the management or government requires just to make fun of them.

See, the masks are not about you. Surgical masks provide pretty good (but not the best) protection against COVID19 for the wearer, but most patients and parents wear cloth masks. These provide modest protection, at best, to the wearer. The real purpose of mass masking is to protect others, to keep everyone else from being infected by an asymptomatic carrier.

Some experts calculate that universal masks, various cleansing techniques, and social distancing measures may allow us to safely resume our pre-pandemic activities without prompting another disease peak. I am willing to wear a mask in public to go shopping, work, and keep the world safe.

Why isn't everyone?