Masks. You really ought to wear them.

The reason is pretty straight forward. Masks keep people from getting sick and dying from COVID-19. Social distancing, washing your hands, and wearing masks keep people alive by preventing the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Even if you don't think you are at risk of getting sick, that little virus can be living safe and cozy up inside your nose while you spray it out onto other people with every breath you exhale. 

            When you step into a restroom at a restaurant and see the sign reminding the employees to wash their hands before returning to work, you understand that it is meant for all the employees, and not just the ones that believe that they might be ill, or carrying some nasty contagious pathogen that might make you sick if it gets into your food. In fact, if you are in a restaurant and realize that the soap dispenser in the restroom is empty, you ought to be wondering how the employees can possibly be washing properly before preparing the food you are eating. And the reason you worry about such things, is because those employees handle the food you are getting ready to put into your mouth, and you want it to be as germ free and as safe as possible. Well, you handle the air that everyone around you is about to breathe into their lungs. You simply do it with your nose instead of your hands. And, in the same way, other people handle the air that you suck into your body too.  So, even if you feel fine, you are still capable of spreading diseases to other people, just by breathing near them. We all are.

            Masks are good for you. They don’t harm you. I agree that there are exceptions to this statement, but they are rare, and if your physiology is so bad that you get short of breath doing normal activity while wearing a mask, you have more serious health issues that need to be evaluated. So, I repeat: Masks are good for you. They don’t harm you. Thousands of surgeons, dentists, and nurses have been wearing masks for decades without having any problems. And there are other professions who routinely wear masks to avoid inhaling airborne particles who also do it without any trouble. 

          Masks are good for you. The COVID-19 virus is bad for you. There is a lot of good research that shows that the COVID-19 virus can make you very sick and that masks can help prevent that. There is no research that I have been able to find that shows that masks cause you any serious harm. Anyone who has worn one knows that masks can feel stuffy and uncomfortable. They fog up your glasses and a few people might even get skin rashes from the material that some masks are made of. But those things don’t kill you or cause serious long-term harm. 

          This past spring, I worked in a healthcare facility in Brooklyn, New York for five weeks as a volunteer physician, while New York City was the world epicenter for the COVID-19 pandemic. I didn’t get sick. There was probably some luck in that, but mostly I just did my best to stay away from the virus. I used masks, hand washing, PPE and common sense to do that. I also did a couple of things you probably don’t need to do to further decrease my contact with the COVID-19 virus, like shaving my beard (to assure a proper fit for an N-95 mask) and shaving my head (hair provides a lot of surface area for a virus to stick to) and removing my work clothes, which were scrub suits, and washing them as soon as I got back to my hotel room. 

          But here is the thing. I am an old guy. In fact, I am part of the demographic that all of the government and health organizations say should be staying home and having the neighbors check on them once in a while. But I was able to work in the COVID pandemic and stay safe using common sense and the tools and techniques that have been part of medicine for decades.

         They say that you can’t teach an old doc new tricks. And that’s OK. We all just need to learn and use the old tricks well.