As Wolf’s shows, no one is immune from COVID-19

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf announced Wednesday that he tested positive for CO

VID-19 on Tuesday and is in isolation at home. In a statement, he said he is following the guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state Department of Health. “I have no symptoms and am feeling well,” Wolf said, adding, of his wife, “Frances has been tested and, as we await the result, is quarantining at home with me. I am continuing to serve the commonwealth and performing all of my duties remotely, as many are doing during the pandemic.”

We were discouraged — but frankly not surprised — to read sarcastic comments like this one posted beneath Wolf’s tweets about his positive CO

VID-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.”

But first things first: We wish the governor and his wife well, and truly hope they get past this COVID-19 diagnosis without long-term health implications.

We were heartened to see good wishes extended to the governor and his wife even from those who have sparred with him politically. (Editor’s note: On Friday the governor’s office announced that two subsequent been negative.)

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 Wednesday, 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 Wednesday, bringing its total case count to 445,317. And it reported 220 new deaths from

COVID-19.

Lancaster County Coroner Dr. Stephen Diamantoni said that 570 Lancaster County residents had died from CO

VID-19 as of Wednesday, with an increase of 14 deaths in the previous 24 hours.

Also Wednesday, 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

tests have

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.

This was the repeated refrain in a letter published in Wednesday’s LNP ‘ LancasterOnline from executives with WellSpan Health, including Tina Citro, president of WellSpan Ephrata Community Hospital.

“Each day for the past nine months,” the letter read,

“WellSpan Health’s doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, pharmacists and other team members have been caring for family, friends and neighbors affected by COVID-19 in south-central Pennsylvania. At WellSpan Ephrata Community Hospital and WellSpan Good Samaritan Hospital, nearly one out of every three hospital beds is occupied by our friends and neighbors suffering from COVID-19.”

Describing the strain on hospitals as “intense,” the letter continued: “Our team members — your friends and neighbors — are amazing people caring for people they know and love. That’s the commitment made by our care teams. ... Their mantra has been the same from the beginning of the pandemic: Wear a mask. Wash your hands. Stand 6 feet away from others.”

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

The WellSpan officials are not politicians issuing partisan political statements. They work in health care. And they were referring in their letter to health care workers who are friends and neighbors of Lancaster County residents. Who want us to be safe. Who want the strain on their hospitals to lessen because they are exhausted and there are so many people — not just COVID-19 patients — who need their care.

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.