Please don’t get me wrong. Masks are imperative for a variety of reasons, and anything is better than nothing. However, not all masks are created equal and most people are deluding themselves into thinking they are protected adequately with a flimsy cloth mask.
With the ORIGINAL form of the virus, cloth masks added only 10 more minutes of protection, when people were tested in closed rooms with inadequate circulation. Double layers were a little better. Surgical masks were slightly better than that but N95, and the Chinese equivalent KN95, were orders of magnitude more protective against getting an infectious dose of the SARS-Cov-2 virus. Those provide many hours of protection.
Enter the Delta variant which produces 1000x more virus in people’s noses and is 4-5x more infectious than the original form. It is no more capable of getting around or through masks, it just takes much less virus to infect someone. Whereas we saw no significant outbreaks of Covid after the riotous scenes of civil unrest last year, there have been numerous outdoor events which have resulted in Delta variant outbreaks in the last month. It’s no longer an indoor disease.
It is a respiratory, aerosolized virus. A simple way of looking at it is this: if you are walking down the street and smell someone’s exhaled smoke (or other forms of smoke becoming more popular these days), you are essentially breathing in someone else’s exhaled air, i.e. aerosolized particles. That’s potentially the virus. Whereas before, that amount of viral load was not enough to make you sick, the rules have changed with Delta.
And guess what? There is an even scarier version of this virus, Lambda, now growing in South America.
Why bother then? Because something is better than nothing, except for may be synthetic and gaiter-style face coverings which aerosolize particles even more. In addition, when you wear a mask, you, along with those around you, are reminded that we are still in the midst of a PANdemic and that this virus is out there and we should respect each other’s space. I have heard cloth masks compared with seatbelts. Would you rather wear a simple lap belt or a cross body, self locking seatbelt? Which one will protect you more? Lap belts are better than nothing but the latter protects you much more.
N95 and KN95 are readily available these days. They may soon become harder to find once again, given the sharp rise in numbers, but for now, you can get them almost anywhere. Certainly, opt for these types of masks if you will be spending any significant time indoors with other people. Should kids wear N95 masks in school? I think that depends on where you are and what other protocols are being instituted. If you live in Florida, where schools are not even mandating masking, let alone vaccination for eligible kids, I would not send my child to school without an N95. In a community where there is low prevalence of new cases and schools are more vigilant, cloth or a surgical mask may be adequate.
However, if all you have is a cloth mask, wear that. Just like the lap belt. It’s better than nothing.
Mask or not, you MUST vaccinate. Everyone.
VACCINATE – It is safe, essential, responsible and the right thing to do.
MASK UP – and wear the best one you can. And wear it properly, covering your nose. And STOP touching it.
VENTILATE – Be outdoors. Open windows, use fans and filters…
WASH your hands when necessary.
GET HEALTHY! It’s not a matter of if, but when you are exposed to the virus, your state of health will dictate whether you get sick, for how long and how severely. Especially as ever newer variants arise. The healthier you are, the better your body can combat the virus and the disease it causes. Being overweigh or obese is the #1 chronic disease associated with severe Covid cases.
We are in this together and only together will we adapt to living with this virus.
Stay safe and be well.
AC