No one is immune, so please mask up

We can significantly decrease our risk by doing what medical experts are pleading with us to do.

We were discouraged — but frankly not surprised — to read sarcastic comments like this one posted beneath Gov. Tom Wolf’s tweets about his positive COVID-19 test: “Guess that mask really helped huh Tom?” Masks do indeed help. But don’t take our word for it. Take the word of the CDC, which issued a scientific brief last month stating that a mask reduces the emission of the respiratory droplets that spread the novel coronavirus, and also reduces the inhalation of such droplets by the mask-wearer.

So we can update that public health slogan we heard so often during the pandemic’s early months to read: “My mask protects you and me. Your mask protects me and you.”

As far too many people know, this is a difficult time to be sick or infected, as hospitals fill with COVID-19 patients and the novel coronavirus spreads apace here and across the country.

As LNP LancasterOnline’s Nicole C. Brambila reported, state data showed that roughly 15% of COVID-19 patients in Lancaster County hospitals were on ventilators Tuesday.

“The seven-day average ventilator use in the county is up dramatically over the past 10 weeks from just one ventilated patient the week of Sept. 21 to 25,” she noted.

And Lancaster County passed another troubling milestone, reaching — with 428 confirmed new cases of COVID-19 — a total case count of 20,233, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

The state reported 8,703 new COVID-19 cases, bringing its total case count to 445,317. And it reported 220 new deaths from COVID-19.

Also, The Washington Post reported that the U.S. had recorded more than 3,000 COVID-19 deaths in a single day, “a pandemic record.”

All of this should lead us to follow the Pennsylvania mandate to wear masks whenever we’re with people from outside our households — and to wear the masks properly so they cover both our noses and mouths.

Wolf’s COVID-19 test doesn’t disprove the effectiveness of mask-wearing. As he noted in his statement, his positive test “is a reminder that no one is immune” from COVID-19.

Unless we confine ourselves to plastic bubbles, we can’t be completely protected from the novel coronavirus.

But we can significantly decrease our risk — and help limit community spread of the virus — by doing what medical experts are pleading with us to do. Which is to not only mask up, but to socially distance and wash our hands regularly and thoroughly.

Although these measures offer no guarantee, scientific evidence establishes that they dramatically reduce the likelihood of contracting the novel coronavirus.

We’ll probably never know how Gov. Wolf — who is photographed consistently in public wearing a mask — contracted COVID-19. It is possible that an asymptomatic staff member or acquaintance unknowingly transmitted it to him.

According to a Harvard Medical School website, “A person infected with coronavirus — even one with no symptoms — may emit aerosols when they talk or breathe. Aerosols are infectious viral particles that can float or drift around in the air for up to three hours. Another person can breathe in these aerosols and become infected with the coronavirus. This is why everyone should cover their nose and mouth when they go out in public.” (The italics are ours.)

We’re up against a dangerous and highly transmissible novel coronavirus. Masks serve as an excellent barrier to the transmission of that virus. They’re not 100% effective (their effectiveness varies by type and material). But until most Americans are vaccinated against COVID-19, masks are an essential weapon in the fight against the disease.

The CDC scientific brief cited an investigation of “a high-exposure event,” in which two “symptomatically ill hair stylists interacted for an average of 15 minutes with each of 139 clients during an 8-day period.” The finding: None of the 67 clients who subsequently consented to an interview and testing developed infection. “The stylists and all clients universally wore masks in the salon as required by local ordinance and company policy at the time,” the CDC noted.

So, please, mask up. Practice social distancing. Wash your hands. And stay home as much as possible. Because, as is increasingly clear, we’re in for a tough winter.