THE VIRUS IS STILL HERE

Please use caution this summer

First, the good news: The number of new COVID-19 cases in Colorado each day has continued to decline. Well done Colorado!

In fact, in the seven days prior to this weekend, there was an average of about 100 new cases a day reported to the state, which is a dramatic decrease from the numbers seen in April and May.

However, the bad news is that SARSCOV-2 is still circulating in our community. Since March 1, there hasn’t been a single day that the state hasn’t received a report of a death caused by the new coronavirus.

And, while the number of new infections and reported deaths in Colorado and New York are declining, other areas of the nation – California, Texas, Florida, North Caroline and Arizona (to name a few) — are seeing growing numbers. This indicates that the virus is still capable of spreading during the warm months of summer.

We urge Coloradans to continue doing their part to stop the spread of the virus. No longer are we being asked to shelter at home to prevent hospitals from having more patients than they can treat. However, we should all still be taking precautions to keep the spread of the virus slow.

Coloradans should still avoid large gatherings of people, especially indoors.

Increasingly public health experts are finding that the simple act of wearing a mask in public may help reduce the risk of transmission. Homemade masks are by no means foolproof guards against contracting the virus, but the evidence available to date does support that masks prevent virus particles from circulating once exhaled, which can protect others from asymptomatic and presymptomatic carriers.

Masks should fit comfortably but snuggly. Cotton masks allow the free exchange of tiny molecular particles like oxygen and carbon dioxide but restrict the flow of the comparatively larger water droplets that can contain the coronavirus.

We wish the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hadn’t been so slow to adopt mask recommendations, in fact, if the science behind homemade masks holds up to the test of time, the CDC’S initial advisements that masks would not help combat the spread of the coronavirus may go down in history as one of the greatest failures of modern medicine.

A new study by scientists at Britain’s Cambridge and Greenwich Universities was published last week in the scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A. The study used previous research to determine that masks are probably around 43% to 94% effective at blocking virus-carrying droplets from traveling away from individuals wearing masks. Given those assumptions, the model found that mask-wearing would be an effective way to substantially reduce the transmission rate of the coronavirus. Some scientists are still skeptical that masks are effective at blocking virus-laden particles as the research is still limited.

But we think the relatively small inconvenience of wearing a mask, is worth the risk that the Cambridge study and other researchers have overstated the positive effect of masks.

Keeping the transmission rate of this virus low will allow the economy to continue its recovery from the initial shock of shutdowns and deadly outbreaks. And, students need to get back to school this fall. Already this virus has caused a major setback for students, especially those working hard to close the achievement gap.

If we can keep the number of cases low this summer, it will set the state up for a less-deadly fall.