Know the science

As a family physician serving Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico for more than 32 years, I was surprised when I recently entered a busy Santa Fe family business and noticed no one was wearing a mask except for me. The owner told me she does not believe in masks.

As I was leaving the store, she shouted out, “Community immunity, that’s what we need!” Community immunity, or population immunity, is a concept in epidemiology whereby after a large percentage of the population has become immune by infection or vaccination — 30 percent to 70 percent in the case of the coronavirus — the transmission of infection declines, thereby protecting non-immune individuals. Only 5 percent of the U.S. population is infected today, leading to some 2.8 million cases and more than 130,000 dead. Our health care system is already overwhelmed. To reach population immunity would require about 100 million infected. At the present rate, that would result in 2 million deaths.

Unfortunately, the reporters of false news who use scientific terms such as “community immunity” do not look up the definition, and thereby perpetuate the spread of false and dangerous information. Masks, like social distancing, have in fact been proven to decrease transmission of deadly infections. The unprecedented number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the United States is stunning evidence of what happens in a for-profit health system in a pandemic: profit over health and a blatant disregard for the principles of medical science. For the sake of your health and others, wear a mask.

Dr. Ron Press Santa Fe