Face coverings will save lives and allow NM to open sooner

Wear a mask, save lives. It’s that simple. Or should be. Face coverings can be uncomfortable, particularly during the sweltering heat of a New Mexico summer. They fog up glasses, irritate skin and can impair breathing. But they also can save lives and reduce COVID-19 hospitalizations.

In fact, health officials say face coverings are a principal way of containing the spread of the coronavirus, and their use and effectiveness is directly tied to when people can return to work or school and resume the lives they knew before the pandemic.

Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization now recommend cloth masks for the general public, a reversal of their statements in the early stages of the pandemic.

But scientists have learned much about the virus, and its spread, since then.

Now it has become clear that there are many asymptomatic people who can spread the virus simply through talking. And there is evidence that a person is most contagious before they start showing symptoms.

While masks offer some protection for mask wearers, their bigger advantage is protecting those around them. An early argument against wearing a mask was that most cloth masks will not keep out the tiny aerosol particles carrying the virus. But what they will do is stop the larger droplets from going through a speaker’s mask before they turn into the tiny aerosol particles.

There is also research that shows the countries where most of the population is wearing masks have lower death rates from the virus.

Still, many non-wearers insist mandating they wear them violates their freedoms. For some it has become a political statement not to wear a mask. And some even become belligerent when asked by an employee of a store or other public establishment to follow the governor’s health mandate and slip one on. Really? The anger and discord over some of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s decisions regarding her health orders are understandable. It’s still a puzzler why small businesses were shuttered while large competitors were allowed to remain open.

Or why locally owned businesses such as wineries and group fitness studios are still banned from opening. Explain again how breweries, which are allowed to open, and wineries are different. Or how gyms, also now open, that allow dozens of different clients to use the same equipment are safer than a studio that requires clients to bring their own mats, distance themselves 8 feet apart and then practice yoga.

But the governor’s mandate on wearing masks, unlike other orders, does not risk anyone’s livelihood. It is simply a mandate for all of us to take precautions to protect the vulnerable around us.

There should be nothing partisan about this. If wearing a mask is making a statement, the statement is that you care about the health and safety of others.

Studies show masks are most effective when most of the population wears them — saving thousands of lives if 80% don face coverings. Which means we all need to get on board. There really is no excuse for most people not to be wearing a face covering in public. It’s understandable for people with breathing difficulties not to wear one, but that can’t explain the 70% of people the governor said she saw not wearing one Thursday during her drive between Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

“I need you to do more,” the governor warned. Well, we can do better.

New Mexicans have endured too much pain and made too many sacrifices since March to backslide now.