American culture, by and large, is not collective. Through our ideals of free-market capitalism, manifest destiny and the American Dream, we’ve consistently glorified self-improvement and personal liberty over the public good. It’s true that this mindset can improve your stock portfolio’s performance. But today, as COVID-19 ravages the U.S., it may well kill your neighbors.
Data on COVID-19’s case fatality rate is inconsistent, but the fact remains that as of April 9, it has killed nearly 15,000 people in the U.S. alone. You can’t save the intubated 80-year-old struggling to breathe in the middle of Brooklyn, but you can save the miraculously uninfected doctor out for a walk in your community after a 20-hour-long shift at the hospital. To do so, you need to do just two things: make yourself a mask and wear it.
On April 3, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released new guidelines recommending that all Americans wear face coverings. New evidence suggesting that the 25% and 50% of COVID-19 cases that are asymptomatic can infect others convinced the White House’s coronavirus task force to reverse its previous guidance to the contrary. Wearing a mask will likely do little to prevent you from contracting the virus from someone around you, but importantly, in the event you are a carrier, it could prevent you from passing it to those around you.
The novel coronavirus most likely infects people through what the CDC terms droplet spread, a mode of transmission in which pathogens move in large respiratory particles roughly five to 10 micrometers in diameter. We primarily produce these droplets through coughs and sneezes, but some experts suggest that the virus could also spread through the smaller particles we exhale when breathing. Either way, masks catch most of those contaminated droplets and particles, thereby drastically reducing your risk of infecting others. Simply covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze isn’t enough; your arm won’t catch every droplet, and if COVID-19 does indeed spread via airborne transmission, even breathing near someone could give them the virus. If you care about the health of your coworkers, your neighbors and your family, wear a mask.
That danger should not, however, inspire you to stock up on surgical masks or N95 respirators. Medical professionals on the front lines across the country desperately need both types much more than any of us do, given their daily exposure to the virus and the high risk that they would pose to their coworkers if infected. While N95 and surgical masks would certainly reduce your risk of contracting the virus and infecting others, professionals know how to use that equipment properly, and you most likely do not. They need it more than you — my father needs it more than you.
As a pediatrician in Ohio, my father has been testing his young patients for COVID-19 for weeks. His office has reserved a large chunk of space strictly for examining possible cases and storing personal protective equipment like surgical masks. He and his partners need those masks to protect themselves, their other patients and their families (mine included), but securing them is becoming more and more difficult as the pandemic progresses. Moreover, his risk of illness is low compared to hospital physicians and first responders in New York, Detroit, New Orleans and elsewhere. Every respirator you buy is another respirator the nurse who is exposed to dozens of cases each day in New Jersey doesn’t get to wear. Do your part, and stop buying them.
The CDC advises the use “of simple cloth face coverings to slow the spread of the virus and help people who may have the virus and do not know it from transmitting it to others.” Even a rectangle of fabric will work. Instructions on how to make them are all over the internet, but the best and most detailed are those published by the CDC, The New York Times and CNN. Cut up an old T-shirt or bed sheet, invest an hour or so into making it into a covering, and then go about your day. They don’t have to be intricate or beautiful to work, but they do have to be on your face.
Unfortunately, President Donald Trump disagrees. When he announced the new guidelines on masks, he stressed that their use was voluntary, even going so far as to say, “I don’t think I’m going to be doing it.” He then suggested that he couldn’t even imagine doing so: “Wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens — I just don’t see it.” Please, for the sake of your health and mine, don’t listen to him, because the example he’s setting isn’t merely ill-advised. It’s deadly.
Instead, take your advice from the scientists and experts who actually understand the gravity of the situation. It may be true that if you go to Kroger for a gallon of milk without a mask, you won’t face jail time, but you will have to come to terms with the fact that you’ve prioritized aesthetics and convenience over your neighbors’ lives.
A scarf, as Trump has suggested that we wear, isn’t enough, and neither is relying only on social distancing or covering your mouth when you cough. Some who live in crowded homes and are unable to telework can’t practice social distancing, and if you’ve been to a Walmart recently, you know full well that those aisles are not wide enough to maintain a 6-foot distance from anyone. But everyone, no matter where they live, can tie cloths across their faces. It’s that simple.
None of this is to say that a mask excuses you from practicing social distancing or warrants touching your face. Partying with hundreds of people on a Friday night would still significantly risk harming your community, even if everyone present were to wear masks. None of the tactics at our disposal are foolproof, so we need to commit to all of them as best we can if we are to safeguard ourselves and our loved ones against COVID-19.
Buying personal protective equipment you don’t really need hurts medical professionals individually and our society’s health collectively, as does refusing to wear fabric face coverings in public. Again, you are legally free to do either if you so choose. If you do, though, you will need to accept the fact that you have willfully run the risk of infecting and killing your neighbors because you were too lazy to cut out a piece of fabric, thread a string through it and put it on your face. Do you really want that on your conscience?
Ben Thomas (23C) is from Dayton, Ohio.
