If you knew that you could take a medication that would prevent your getting the flu, wouldn’t you take it? What is the difference between a pill and a face mask? I don’t think there is, but it appears many people in our society think there’s something shameful about wearing a face mask during this time when a deadly virus is spreading in our environment.
Dr. Atul Gawande is an American physician and Harvard professor, who is the son of two doctors originally from India. He is also on staff at Mass General Brigham Hospital in Boston along with 75,000 other employees. COVID-19 patients have been treated there since the outbreak but few employees have been infected because they wear masks. Gawande states that if 60% to 75% of the population wore masks, the pandemic could end. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? However, the masks must be worn over the nose and mouth to be effective. Pulling it down to talk defeats the entire purpose of the mask. Otherwise all we have is “mask theater.”
I’m especially frustrated when I go to grocery stores and see less than half of the other customers wearing masks. Television ads first tout the company’s concern for safety during the pandemic and then portray people not wearing masks or pulling them down to speak.
Come on folks. Aren’t we all tired of sheltering in place and reading about more and more people dying, including 19 in Montgomery County. Shed your pride and put on a mask.
Nancy Bennett
Crawfordsville
