Masks - Why Not?

 

Face masks are part of the daily patter of words we hear over and over these days: COVID-19; pandemic; fatality rate; flattening the curve; social distancing; ventilators; stay-at-home; lockdown; quarantine; and essential vs. nonessential businesses and services.

When the virus outbreak first started in China, what I saw on the news was that everyone there was wearing masks. When the virus arrived here in the U.S., we were told masks weren’t helpful. We were told that washing your hands and not touching your face plus social distancing would help stop the spread of the virus.

On Friday, April 3, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged all Americans to wear masks when leaving their homes. Those masks are not the medical or surgical grade that hospital and emergency workers would need to stay safe while administering to the sick and dying.

Then we have Trump who said, “With the masks, it is going to be a voluntary thing.” He also said, “Wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens – I don’t know,” he added, though he stopped receiving foreign dignitaries weeks ago. “Somehow, I just don’t see it for myself.”

When a person is presenting no symptoms of a disease, yet has the disease that is called being asymptomatic. And that’s a problem. There are people wandering around who do have the virus, but show no symptoms of it. Instead, the virus just moves to the next person and feeds off that person's lungs. If an asymptomatic person is wearing a mask, then that person's “droplets” would not jump over to someone else’s lungs. 

How do you know if you are the one spreading the virus? You don’t. Current testing for the virus is only happening to individuals who are exhibiting a high temperature, dry cough and shortness of breath. Unless you are the President then you can get treated with drugs that the general public doesn’t have access to and that cost around $100,000.

Where do those who are not in the medical field find masks? Well, I tried a number of cloth masks that neighbors and through friends whose family members were making them. They just didn't fit right. It was especially a problem when I heard that masks should be dried in the dryer. All that did was make the masks even smaller!

Recently, I was shopping (a rare event), looking for a sympathy card, when I saw a table of masks. So many different choices. I wanted to get it right this time. Well...I found a company called Ocalm. I bought my first package of five masks and went home. Hallelujah! 

I went online and ordered another two packages (10 masks). I was impressed with their quickness in letting me know that: they received my order; they were packing my order; they shipped it and included an easy-to-use tracking link. Plus they replaced one of the masks that had a defective loop. Wow! Check them out at: www.o-calm.us

By the way, in the early days of the pandemic during his press conferences, Trump’s staff members were seen standing less than six feet from one another. Could their reasoning have been that the virus was not contagious to Republicans and only to members of the Democratic party?

Then came the super-spreader Rose Garden event to introduce the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court in late September. I guess there must have been Democrats present and that is how the President and his staff got it. Just kidding!

Trump also suggested his getting the virus in early October happened during a ceremony to honor fallen soldiers. He said it was from the Gold Star Families that he met at that event and not at the Rose Garden event. More likely he already had COVID-19 and he exposed those military families to the virus.

Another one of my favorites - Trump also believed that Hope Hicks caught the disease from “people from the military and law enforcement” who keep wanting to hug him and his team (which included Hope Hicks).” REALLY? My experience is that military and law enforcement are not the “hugging type” especially while on duty which these individuals he mentioned would have been.

Thankfully, President-Elect Biden, realizes that we need a consistent message and plan from our government on how we should conduct ourselves during this horrific crisis. I personally feel that the Trump administration never got a clue as to how to handle this pandemic other than to say, “it is rounding the corner.”

As of November 15, 246,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 and there are over 11.1 million cases. Just wear a mask…wash your hands… and stay a minimum of six feet from others to save lives.

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Until the next time...stay safe.