Mask up, Swarthmore
To the Editor:
Inconsistent planning, and states with lax measures, have recently allowed COVID-19 infections and deaths to reach levels equal to or surpassing the worst period in April and May. Continued unwillingness by the federal government to develop a systematic approach to this pandemic has led scientific and professional organizations to produce roadmaps for the containment of the viral spread. Among these respected groups are Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. Both organizations consider the consistent wearing of a mask to be the general population’s primary readily available method for reducing the spread of COVID-19. The most recent projections from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation suggest that, if 95% of people nationwide wore masks, it would dramatically reduce the number of deaths.
We will need to wear masks until a vaccine becomes available. Happily, designers have joined the effort to make masks a desirable part of our daily lives. In addition to white or blue single-use mask options, washable cloth masks are available with slogans from your favorite sports team, images of dogs and flowers, or abstract patterns — or in plain white cotton, always tasteful, like the masks used during the 1918 pandemic. Keep one in your car or by the front door, and make it a new habit to grab it as you go about your daily routine. Buckling our seatbelts is the automatic first step in car travel, and putting on a mask must become similarly automatic.
Our small community has so far been largely spared. The official number of infections is low, but it has been rising weekly. We’ve experienced one death — paramedic Brad Blackman, who became infected while working to help his fellow Swarthmoreans. It’s easy to feel helpless in the face of an unseen enemy, but while we’re waiting for a vaccine or successful treatments, we all have low-tech options to protect ourselves and our neighbors. Wear a mask, do a 20-second Dr. Fauci hand wash, and socially distance.
As Pennsylvania Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine recently said, “When you wear a mask, whether you’re walking on the street, or inside a grocery store. or shopping at a retail store, or even outside in a park, it is a sign to the whole community and to our commonwealth that we’re all in this together.” (Philadelphia Inquirer, July 31, “Officials Urge Use of Face Masks.”)
Elizabeth Dowling
Swarthmore
