I’m not lying when I tell you all that I really, honestly, do not understand how anyone would protest wearing a mask in public. I understand that masks can be inconvenient for certain tasks and that they can be marginally hotter in summer weather. However, since they are being worn to stay alive or, at the very least, to breathe unassisted, any argument against them simply falls flat. However, my feelings are not universal and there are plenty of people, mostly Americans, who refuse to wear a mask. Refuse, as in they’d rather be thrown out of a business or risk contracting a virus that has killed over half a million people worldwide. Dr. Robert Redfield, Director of the Centers for Disease Control, might have possibly given the Un-Masked Avengers a reason to put down their protest signs, though. Dr. Redfield said if we all – ALL – wear a mask, we’d lick this pandemic in four to six weeks.
Nationwide use of face masks could significantly slow the spread of COVID-19 and end the epidemic in four to six weeks, Dr. Robert Redfield, Director of the Centers for Disease Control, said Monday.
Speaking at a press conference in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, which encompasses Charlotte, where COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are on the rise, Redfield urged people to wear masks.
“If all of us would put on a face covering now for the next four weeks, six weeks, we could drive this epidemic to the ground,” he said.
North Carolina is one of the nearly two dozen states, along with the District of Columbia, that requires its citizens to wear masks in public. Redfield emphasized that wearing masks is scientifically proven to make a difference in reducing the spread of COVID-19.
“We are not defenseless against this virus. We actually have one of the most powerful weapons you could ask for,” he said. “The most powerful weapon we have that I know of is wearing face coverings.”
He continued: “The most important thing that I could ask the American public to do is to fully embrace face coverings, to fully embrace careful hand hygiene, and to fully embrace social distancing.”
In the months since the CDC’s recommendation, several studies have confirmed that masks are effective in stopping the spread of COVID-19. The virus primarily spreads through respiratory droplets from the nose and mouth and when people are pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic, and often unaware that they have COVID-19. By wearing masks, the risk of virus transmission goes down by 85 percent, according to a study published in the journal Lancet.
Another study, from Florida Atlantic University, determined that multi-layer, sewn face masks, like those available on Etsy or from many clothing retailers, were the most effective non-medical masks, and reduced respiratory spray from 8 feet to just 2.5 inches.
And there you have it. If folks want to resume some semblance of a normal life, they need to suck it up and cover their faces for a couple of months. Obviously, we we’ll still need precautions to ensure our safety after six weeks of full mask coverage, but with the way the US numbers are rising, they’re talking about quarantine extending to 2021 or beyond. I’d far prefer to order my Big Mac masked than spend Christmas with my family on Zoom. However, instead of accepting any data or expert recommendation, eschewing masks has become political, a partisan issue that both the current POTUS and his VP are happy to perpetuate. People are risking the chance of relying on a ventilator to breathe, holes in their lungs, lesions on their brains, amputations, major organ failure, fibrosis and PTSD in favor of becoming a viral video star for their tantrum at Trader Joes. I can’t explain any of it. When condoms proved an effective defense against HIV/AIDS, I was never again without one.
On a lighter note, does anyone else read Dr. Robert Redfield’s name as Dr. Robert Redford and picture The Sundance Kid in a white coat, imploring you to wear a mask until you comply and he winks at you, saying, “atta girl”? Hey, wait a minute – maybe that fantasy is how we convince the other half to put a mask on – anyone have ‘Dr.’ Redford’s number?
Photo credit: cottonbro, Andrea Piacquadio and Kebs Visuals from Pexels and WENN/Avalon
My immediate thought: the governor of Georgia belongs in jail. (Along with the rest of the Trump/Kushner/Devos sh-tshow brigade.)
We’re going to need to build a whole new jail just for this administration and its political suck ups.
My thoughts on that 4-6 week estimate? Pshhhh….sorry, it will take longer than that, but at least yall would stop spreading that shit!
I was just writing to another preschool speech pathologist about this. If people would behave themselves, maybe we could have in person classes in September. I don’t know about home visits though, I kind of never want to do an in home session again because there will be no control over safety. I miss my kiddos, and I am not a fan of teletherapy for 2 and 3 year olds, but I am scared of going back to school.
My son has his teacher from the district come to the house every day (in normal times) they used Google Hangouts once we were locked down.
In person would be so much better.
I will do whatever makes his teacher the most comfortable and safe.
I’m So California and we don’t have much rain or bad weather so I’m thinking outside maybe?
I believe this. If we had a more competent administration, with a national shutdown and mask mandate we could have controlled the virus.
It enrages me to think of all the lives lost or ruined over the last almost four years because of this administration!
Okay, glad he said that, but Dr. Redfield has also given testimony trying to undermine Dr. Fauci and other scientists. He claimed Northerners on vacation were responsible for the rise in Southern coronavirus cases, rather than the lifting of restrictions.
It stuns and horrifies me that the people who are insistent on schools reopening in September are the same people who refuse to wear masks in stores. We COULD get back to some normalcy for everyone, not just the fearless idiots who have continued going to parties and bars this whole time, if people collectively took this seriously for just a little while. It’s such a small sacrifice to make in order to get back the life we all miss. People’s selfishness during this time — those saying “well if you’re scared then stay home!” and “my body, my rights, I don’t need to protect you!” — have hurt and disappointed me in a way I can’t even express. What has become of this country that we can’t agree to help each other out for a month.
Serious question: Is there any coverage of how countries outside of the US (i.e. many European countries or New Zealand) successfully stopped corona and thus got very low infection and death rates? Half a year into the pandemic somebody comes around with an idea that has been proven to be effective months ago?!
More testing and contact tracing, which we haven’t implemented enough of to my knowledge. Having a leader who urges people to take it seriously instead of calling it a hoax in the first few vital months before it got out of control probably didn’t hurt either.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/15/how-taiwan-beat-the-coronavirus.html
Here ya go. I’ve been watching the Taiwan coverage closely because they have been physically the closest to the initial outbreak in Wuhan and managed to keep their citizens safe in a smart way. Asian countries are better about banding together for the good of all which is an important element of their culture. American individualism is kind of boning us on this particular health issue.
Taiwan is probanly the onlu coubtry indeed. And it’s not part of WHO.
In Europe we slowed down the epidemu with the lockdown but we never got rid of it. Some countries are locking down small area or big region again.
I believe Spain, Italy and France (I am French) had the most severe lockdowns. We reopened slowly a few weeks back. Contamination are low but still happening. That’s why, even though they are crucial, I don’t believe everyone wearing a mask for 4 to 6 weeks would stop the virus completely.
I’ve read a lot of articles on that subject – mostly Taiwan, but also New Zealand, and a few other places, have done extremely well.
How is this news when the rest of the world has been doing this with great success for months? Quite honestly for someone not from the US, what goes on there is very hard to fathom. Sometimes I think that the country suffers from a case of ideological poisoning. I read that someone wearing a mask was denounced as being a socialist. There is some twisted thinking to be straightened out here (and speaking as a German, affordable health carefor everyone isn’t communism, just a complete no-brainer).
I have a friend, educated, worldly, in her 60s, that has descended into a world of conspiracy theories and anti-government (and anti-mask) madness.
I haven’t engaged with her. Mostly because those that have have met a brick wall. She only admits to depression, fatigue and a sheer weariness to all the media reports on the virus. She thinks the fear that it has generated is worse than the risks associated (including death) with contracting it. She refers to it as the flu. She misses going out. She has friends with businesses that are suffering because no one goes out.
We are in Canada, with the privilege of universal healthcare, and a fairly low infection and death rate. She can’t see that the actions of government, and people in general, have allowed her the luck that she hasn’t been infected, or affected, but seems willing to ignore the millions that have.
She’s single and childless. Mostly alone. So I can see the spiral she’s entered and unable to get out of. But the mask thing… I don’t get why people are so against the simplicity and efficacy of a mask.
We know how you get pregnant. People use condoms for birth control. We know seatbelts save lives. We know drinking and driving is wrong.
How has mask-wearing become the time people won’t see the forest for the trees!?
I find these people will not learn until it personally affects them, which is not something I wish on someone to learn this way. I can only suggest you help her not read facebook and maybe do some volunteering or something – she sounds disconnected from society which for sure does not make you empathetic to others (i.e. mask use)
Agree with your comment. Except the part about being single and childless being to blame for her craziness. We don’t need to add another layer of stigma for single women to fight against. Crazy and selfish comes in all forms.
Some people are only good and kind as long as most everything goes their way. (Which means they aren’t good or kind at all.)
My 50 something step sister is also single and childfree, and has been hunkered down alone since late March. (We both live in New York, but in different boroughs, so even though there isn’t much physical distance between us, she has been essentially alone.) But throughout all of this she has remained the compassionate, considerate person she has always been. Part of this may be because here in NYC we never had the luxury of pretending the virus couldn’t reach us. But I think it is mostly because she is decent at her core.
This isn’t a specific response to your tweet, but more of a counter example for those who might read this thread. Like GrumpyDespot said, single women without children have enough BS to deal with.
Point totally taken. I guess I projected and assumed that someone who had less support might suffer more.
That is an assumption on my part that has no place in the conversation.
Thank you for helping me see more clearly.
I do not believe this will end in 4-6 weeks if everyone wore a mask. It would take double that. Plus, you cannot make everyone wear a mask. I am not talking about people who are able to wear one but decide not to, I am talking about people with real disabilities that makes a mask a hindrance to them.
Yeah, but people with profound disabilities who cannot wear a mask do not make up even a small minority of the population. Literally almost every one in America can wear a mask.
You can make the great, great majority of people wear a mask though, and that would help a lot. There are so few disabilities where mask-wearing would genuinely hinder someone’s quality of life/ability to breathe for a short period of time, and many of those individuals likely wouldn’t be running out to the grocery store on their own anyway.
I have a disability where I have to work extra hard to walk. It’s difficult walking around a store in a mask, feeling extra hot for doing what most people can do with ease. Still not an excuse to not wear a mask.
thank you @Case, for your empathy and thinking of others health before your own comfort whilst wearing your mask. If only more folk thought and acted like you.
People with that kind of disability would be required to either stay home or only go outside for short exercise if they can remain outdoors in a socially distanced manner. There would have to be some kind of assistance for food delivery and whatnot, but it can be done. New York did it, other places can too.
I don’t think most Americans are getting Covid info about other countries. I’m in Canada and all my family in the US are surprised to hear how relatively well it’s going up here and the high level of compliance with masks and our measured approach to reopening. America has such a strong propaganda machine at work so the logic is: America is the best so if it’s like this here, it must be worse elsewhere, so anything that says it’s in fact better in other countries is fake news.
Lol, no. We do in fact have access to international news here in the States even though the GOP is trying to knock us back to the days of telegraph. Those who choose to stay uninformed can do so, but it’s not like we can’t find real media.
I was shocked to hear Kayleigh McEnany make the argument that the US should open schools because all of its peer countries will be. When it comes to COVID-19, Canada and Europe are not US’s peers. Brazil is. It doesn’t seem like it’s sunk in for some people just how much worse off the US is than almost anywhere.
Yeah, but Redfield is the same idiot who just said a lot of the increase was from people traveling from the north down south even though that is being rejected by most. So don’t give him a cookie just yet.
I just discovered my next door neighbor is a trumper. She full out doesn’t believe the pandemic is real and that’s why she doesn’t wear a mask. She thinks it’s just a flu virus and it’s been blown up because of the election. The death numbers are inflated in her mind, everything is just a manipulation. People like her will never wear a mask because to her, it’s about caving in to a system of manipulation. When trump doesn’t promote mask wearing its because he’s exposing the truth. She is so far into the trump cult that she will never see the light. I know so many people like her too (Im in Texas). I feel like we are never going to get out of this because of people like her and her family.
People are parroting those theories where I live, too. I’m noticing a few very vocal ones on social media news sites, and am suspecting we have some trolls feeding the fire. The talking points are really similar, so I’m viewing this as another disinformation campaign.
In 1918, facial coverings were recommended, along with distancing, hygiene and avoiding gatherings. Why people are balking about masks is beyond me. We are fighting an invisible enemy that does not care about political opinions.
It isn’t just masking- this shit isn’t just droplet spread, it remains aloft bc it’s airborne, as well.
I just ordered safety glasses that I intend to use out of the house.
I’m wearing eyeglasses plus mask every day for this reason.
I’m wearing eyeglasses plus mask every day for this reason.
I’ve been wearing Honeywell goggles. They are light weight but they fog up which I would love to know how to stop that but, I know my eyes are ‘sealed’.
An anti-mist (anti-fog? whatever it was called) spray was advertised in one of the Amazon posts, you could look into that!
I can personally attest that cleaning your bathroom mirror with shaving cream stops fogging from hot showers. So maybe try cleaning your glasses with shaving cream? Worth a shot.
This whole idea makes sense to me. I’ve been battling a very REAL frustration at the administration, state leadership here and general American population, particularly Texans. My family has been following all the rules since March: staying at home as required, masks, social distancing, handwashing, avoiding going places like restaurants. For months and months. But not everyone is doing this and cases keep going up. Not only are we still at risk but now letting kids go back to school just seems impossible.
WEAR THE FREAKING MASKS FOLKS!!
Anyone see that interview with a florida rep on cnn? Holy Jesus the stupidity coming from his mouth. Says Florida is fine and he himself refuses to wear a mask.
No sh-t. Apart from a few outliers like Sweden and Belarus, this is what every single other country did.
I had to do a double-take when I realized the pandemic being mostly over within the next six weeks was your out-of-reach, unrealistic option. Sorry to be harsh, but… is America planning on keeping the pandemic active at this level for the next six months? From Europe, your situation looks completely bonkers. I weep for the sane half of the country…
If it wasn’t for the sane half that would suffer, too, this would be morbidly entertaining to watch. But what can you do? The USA is the greatest country in the world, they say.
You know I’m not a religious person BUT sometimes I really wonder if this is God’s punishment on the insane US people. My rational worry is on the medical community and I still hope the sane Americans can lead this country out of this doom soon.
You could call a volcanic eruption an act of God. But let’s say there’s a town in each direction of the volcano. If everyone living in the towns on the north, east, and west sides flee the ash and lava, but the residents in the southern town stay because they feel like the lava has no right to destroy their houses, you shouldn’t blame God. You should blame stupidity.
Nah not blaming God. It’s the irrational part of me that goes, God gave you brains and you still act so stupid so here, go handle this virus by yourself if you’re still insisting on acting stupid.
I live in the area with Great Clips outbreak that proved without a doubt that masks work. We just only got our masking ordinance on Monday. It went into effect today.
There were protests. The council meeting went on for hours with anti-maskers comparing mask wearing to the Holocaust. One protestor was interviewed saying that wearing masks would affect her tan lines, lol.
I have thought since this pandemic has begun we should have been wearing masks.
My husband & I are exempt from wearing masks. We both wear masks. I don’t want to hear people’s excuses. I for one can check mark a lot of the exemptions on the list and I wear a mask at all times when I have to go out.
ALL – wear a mask, we’d lick this pandemic in four to six weeks.
maybe LICK wasn’t the best choice of words?
I just don’t get it.
I saw a clip where the interviewee said he refused to let the state to do a medical procedure on him in reference to wearing a mask.
How can you possibly battle that level of ignorance and stupidity?
I’m in Texas and you would think people are being asked to give up their first born child instead of just putting the damn mask on. I’m worried for us when schools open next month.
The problem is that some people recover from Covid-19 and when they do, they spread the word that it is just some made up virus that isn’t that bad. So, unfortunately, we need some of these maskless idiots to start dropping dead, then they’ll understand what the rest of us already know…this is no joke. People will only wear masks in the US if they are afraid of dying and a good many people don’t think this virus will kill them. Which, honestly, it probably won’t, but it will kill someone and they can’t see outside themselves to care enough to be inconvenienced for a bit. I say: Darwin, do your worst!
I could cry over how simple it is and how I have no faith that it’s going to happen.
I’m sorry but I live in Tokyo, everyone wears a mask 100% of the time when they’re not at home here, because wearing a mask when you have a cold is a long accepted practice. We’re currently experiencing a huge spike in infections after the voluntary lockdown was lifted a month ago. Masks are definitely helpful, but it’s wishful thinking to suggest that the virus can be controlled if everyone would just wear a mask. Everyone should be wearing a mask, but we also need to accept that life isn’t just going to return back to normal in a month or two.
We were supposed to do this in March. Friends of the family with DC connections called my brother and I and told us to prepare our elderly parents to be locked down for 2-4 weeks in mid-March. They said 45 would be going on television to address the nation about a national lockdown. So we stocked up our parents’ house, and our houses, and then 45 went on TV and said nothing of the sort. They were totally shocked he didn’t go through with the national lockdown, they talked about it like all political factions had agreed to go this route and then 45 just didn’t back it.
Imagine where we’d be now in reopening if we had all locked down/started wearing masks back in March.
I will be going through labor and delivery while wearing a mask in matter of weeks. No resentment about it – that is just what we have to do to promote safety. I’ll take pictures in all my masked glory to show the kids one day. I’m glad it’s become socially acceptable/understood to the sane part of the country because I’d like to continue to wear a mask on airplanes or during flu seasons after this is all over. Why more people here would rather subscribe to insane theories involving Chris Evans movies than wear a piece of fabric is beyond me. Embarrassing.
In all honesty, I feel like its time for the United States you seperate into two countries. One republican led, one democrat led. See how long the repubs last before they start defecting to the side with healthcare and low covid infection cus people actually have common sense and give a crap about others.
Ooh… I like this! Except it would be the weirdest shape…Dems along the coasts and Reps in the middle. Maybe we could just split it down the middle. Dems get the East, Reps get the west. Huh.
I do wish there was a way to split the states on ideological lines. However, since the Democratic states are more prosperous, I expect the Rep states would start a war “to uphold the integrity of United States “ or some such nonsense.