Back to masks.

But, before we do that, consider the source- me.  Back in March, I warned y’all that we’d be subject to a slew of waves of this pandemic.  It was just the Northeast and the West Coast that was succumbing to the SARS-CoV-2 virus back then.  Which let so many  get fooled into thinking TheDonald had finally stop lying; that this COVID-19 was a hoax.  (I am always amazed that they never learned the story of Peter and the Wolf.)  Or, his other favorite-  that it would disappear in a heartbeat.  (Yes, that would be the last heartbeat of those succumbing to COVID-19.)

But, then Florida and Texas got into the act.  And, now the middle of America is succumbing. And those folks are bringing it back to the Northeast and California who are now inundated with the third wave.

ENOUGH!

We need to  remove the politics from the situation.  And stop this disease flat before we create the Fourth and the Fifth Waves.

But, politics seem to have overtaken common sense, logic, and proportion..

Right now, the only way we can make sure that YOU and I are safe are that we each wear masks, we wash our hands routinely (here’s how to wash your hands), don’t touch our eyes and mouths, and remain socially distant (at least 6 feet).  Oh- and avoid grocery stores when they are crowded, restaurants or bars that are crowded- in other words seek out places were we may be among the only folks in the establishment.

And, when folks routinely ask me, “Where’s the clinical data proving masks save lives?”, my rejoiner is that no such test can be run.  Sure, I can point to all of TheDonald’s superspreader events, which have killed Herman Cain, infected at least 130 Secret Service agents, even led to the rampant growth of COVID-19 in the Dakotas- but that’s correlation, not causation.

How would one run a clinical trial proving mask efficiency?  There’s the real question.  We can’t randomly assign folks to wear masks or not- because it’s obvious to everyone who would be wearing a mask.  So, the test can never be run blind.  (In drug trial parlance, this is called a confounding factor.)  Moreover, the goal of a randomized trial is to discern the benefit for the trial enrollee.  Not for others not enrolled in the trial.

Actually, the problem is even more complex.  We’d need to isolate a community- divide it into two groups and make sure there was no interaction between the two groups.  One group would wear masks and the other wouldn’t.  And, then we could see the difference.  We’d have to make sure masks were always worn in Group 1 and never worn in Group 2.  And, that means we are acting unethically- we are condemning those in Group 2 to get sick.

(Oh wait- we almost have that. MAGA supporters and militias demonstrate routinely while NOT wearing masks.  And, within a week- POOF!  Hot spot city.  And, when citizens demonstrate against TheDonald, against the killing of civilians without case- they were masks.  And, lo and behold- no uptick in COVID-19 infections.)

Moreover, the primary reason to wear a mask is to prevent us from infecting others.   And, yes, most of us started out the pandemic saying that everyone didn’t have to wear a mask- only those who were already sick needed to do so.  (This is called source control. It was my position back in January, before it was a pandemic.  Sorry for being wrong! {I do learn from my mistakes.])  But, we found out that the secondary benefit- preventing the mask wearer from getting infected was pretty correlative. So, we changed the rules- and the data prove that was a beneficial move.

But, we already know that wearing masks protect the wearer.   That’s why health practitioners wear masks now. (How many of those complaining that masks are an infringement would allow their physicians to NOT wear masks when they treat them??? Yeah, I knew that, too.)  It keeps our health practitioners from getting the illness.  (There actually has been a recent publication, analyzing the literature for such proof.  Drs. M. Liang and L. Gao (Saarland University, Germany), C. Cheng (Cape Fear Valley Medical Center, NC), Q. Zhou (Mayo Clinic), J.P. Uy  and C. Sun (St. Joseph’s Hospital, Chicago), plus K. Heiner (Dignity Mercy, Merced CA) published those results in Travel Medicine and Infectious Diseases. )

So, stop your complaining.  Wear your mask.

Once we fund local health centers so they can administer the vaccines in 2021, it will just be a matter of time before we can get this COVID-19 pandemic under control.