‘Mask, America!’ Texas abandons the mandate of the COVID-19 mask – health experts say it’s a very, very bad idea

Barbara Alexander, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, had three words for people: “Mask up, America!” “Reports indicating that these reductions have stalled should remind us that our progress is fragile,” she said, referring to declining rates of coronavirus infections.

“Only about 10% of Americans across the country have been vaccinated (33 million people) and many of the people most at risk have not yet received the vaccine. COVID-19 continues to spread and take lives. Emerging and more transmissible variants of the virus present new and increased risks, ”she said.

Austin, the fourth largest city in Texas, will require masks for people to visit companies. As of Thursday, the number of COVID-19 deaths in the United States continues to rise and has recently surpassed 530,624. Texas has the third highest number of COVID-related deaths (46,007) in the country, after California and New York.

Keeping social distance, avoiding large gatherings, washing your hands often and wearing masks should continue, said Alexander. “Abandoning them now will postpone the day when we leave COVID-19 behind. We cannot forget the lessons that this pandemic has taught us, or its terrible tribute. “

The only Americans who should give up the masks are those who have already been fully vaccinated and should only do so among other vaccinated people, according to the guidance on how fully vaccinated people can socialize released this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. from United States.

In a recent study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, researchers at Indiana University said that even schoolchildren are willing to wear masks to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, although they have asked for more education on how to wear masks. correctly and more consistently.

A review of the literature on facial masks published in January by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the official journal of the National Academy of Sciences, concluded: “Wearing a public mask is most effective in reducing the spread of the virus when it is high. . “

“The preponderance of evidence indicates that wearing a mask reduces transmissibility by contact, reducing the transmission of infected respiratory particles in laboratory and clinical settings,” concluded the 19 international authors of the review.

COVID-19 is known to be transmissible between pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals, and those with few symptoms. “We recommend that public officials and governments strongly encourage the use of face masks in public,” they wrote.

Face masks probably played a role in reducing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Italy during the first half of 2020, and could have reduced the number of official cases of COVID-19 by up to 30,000 during the increase in cases during the spring. of 2020, he discovered research in the journal Infectious Diseases.

Morten Gram Pedersen, lead author of the study and an associate professor in the Department of Information Engineering at the University of Padova, wrote in the study: “We did not see this reduction in places that did not introduce any additional local interventions at that time. “

Many previous studies have said that masks have helped to reduce contagion by reducing droplets being sprayed in the air. It may be that masks also help to promote healthy behaviors and encourage people not to touch their faces during or after being in public places.

This study says that medical-grade N95 masks help filter viruses larger than 0.1 micrometer (one micrometer is one millionth of a meter). The coronavirus is 0.125 micrometers. These products “have proven to be effective in filtering smaller particles and are designed to fit the face perfectly”.

When asked last month whether Americans will still wear masks in 2022 and when life will return to normal, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN. “It is possible that this is the case and, again, it really depends on what you mean by normality.”

“If normalcy means exactly how things were before we happened to us, I mean, I can’t predict that,” he said. “Obviously, I think we will have a significant degree of normalcy in addition to the terrible burden that we all went through last year.”

But he warned that the new and more contagious versions of the COVID-19 virus will also determine whether people will still wear masks in 2022. . “

Fauci said that if 70% to 85% of the US population were vaccinated, it would amount to good “herd immunity” and the country should begin to see a return to normal in the fall. This, of course, may depend on the individuals’ age, circumstances and underlying conditions.

In January, US President Joe Biden signed a mask mandate for all federal employees and anyone on federal property. They must, according to the mandate, “all wear masks, maintain physical distance and adhere to other public health measures, as provided for in the CDC guidelines”.

Pfizer PFE,
+ 0.49%
and the German partner BioNTech SE’s BNTX,
-0.91%
and MRNA da Moderna,
-2.84%
Two-dose mRNA-based vaccines are about 95% effective. The J&J vaccine is an adenovirus vector-based vaccine and requires only one injection in the United States. It is 72% effective.

Despite the reluctance of some Americans to get the J&J vaccine, although people have no choice, all three vaccines can prevent serious illness, hospitalization and death. “Each of them is very effective in preventing clinically apparent diseases,” said Fauci on Friday.