COVID-19 AND POLITICS
Just Wear Your F*cking Mask
Seriously. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. The sooner everyone masks up, the sooner we’re back to not needing them.
Okay world, it’s time for a quick analysis of the mask debate. Should you mask up (YES!) to go out into public? Is it safe to run without a mask on? When is it most important to not forget your mask? Finally, since we don’t have N95-spec masks available for the most part, how best to handle the situation?
The politics of the pandemic
A lot of people, mainly supporters of Donald Trump and viewers of Sean Hannity, simply refuse to wear them. This is intensely problematic because health is becoming politicized, to the detriment of everyone involved. At the end of the day, Trump’s policy IS the pandemic — he doesn’t want the disease to go anywhere and he doesn’t care whether it kills us or not. He just wants to remain president, and he’s convinced himself that trying to handle the virus the right way is not an option, probably due to his own ineptitude (remember when he put Kushner in charge of the response? What a disaster.).
Politics shouldn’t enter here. We should be addressing this issue in a bipartisan way because it affects us all. Bush and Obama both resisted the temptation to politicize their disease outbreaks, but unfortunately nobody seems capable of forcing Trump to act like a reasonable human being here.
After cutting funding to the WHO, Trump has signaled that this month will be the end of the grant funded research into COVID-19. These acts are criminal, basic, indecent abuses of power… but nobody can stop him for now.
Where that leaves us
In the COVID-19 pandemic, the American Citizen stands for self and only self. Our attempts to band together to figure this thing out and win the battle against it have catastrophically failed, foiled by figures such as Greg Abbott, who prevented his mayors from requiring masks in their municipalities — in addition to the catastrophe that took place in the Federal Government.
Doctors have to wear trash bags for PPE because the feds actively obstructed attempts by state governments and hospitals to acquire the gear they need to deal with diseased patients.
Businesses in places such as Texas only recently became required to insist that their customers wear masks, and the disease’s recent and massive uptick has certainly come about as the result of the “all-clear” essentially being given by the highest officials in the nation and in the state of Texas.
All of this is to say that workers and individuals are being forced to come up with ways to prevent becoming infected on their own because their government has been prevented from helping by the people they elected to public office.
So… how best to minimize the risk to ourselves and our loved ones? Nobody is going to step in and save us here — the death toll is over 120,000 already. Read that again: one hundred and twenty THOUSAND American Citizens have been killed. Nobody is going to step in and save one more. You’re not special. You have to find a way to fight this thing if you’re going to avoid it.
Should you mask up? (YES!)
OF COURSE you should mask up. This excellent article from the best medical school in Texas explains it in a bit more depth. At the end of the day, it’s about diffusion. Even a cloth mask can reduce the risk to others of COVID-19 infection by up to 97%. Well, how can that be right? There are data points all over the place, but it’s basic physics. Diffusion is what spreads the virus — you can significantly reduce the amount of virus you breathe out by masking up, and this reduction in virus exhalation will reduce the risk to anyone around you as a direct consequence.
When we breathe out, water and other exhaled particles get shot out of our mouth and nose to diffuse through the air. Wearing even a basic mask prevents this from happening — so while it’s true that a thin layer of cloth may not help keep you from getting infected if someone you’re in close contact with isn’t wearing a mask and happens to be shedding virus, if you could make that person mask up, your chances of contracting the virus from them would go down significantly.
Fortunately, it’s probably fine to run without a mask on — the rapid diffusion of exhaled particles and the short exposure time anyone you pass might suffer are enough to almost guarantee you’re not putting anyone at risk.
How best to manage with scarce resources?
I want to make it entirely clear: the federal government has the ability to force businesses to produce enough masks for everyone, and they’re not using it. Hold them accountable for that.
That disclaimer aside, the situation for us individuals in the thick of this thing is unchanged: we have to figure out the best way to mask up despite not being able to buy the N95 gear that would help us the most.
Cloth masks and surgical masks are becoming more widely available.
The simple surgical mask is where we should start. It’s cheap, relatively available, and it will lower the risk of contracting COVID-19 somewhat (nobody knows exactly how much, estimates seem to range from a 5% reduction in risk up to 25% or so) while also lowering the risk of passing the disease to someone else by 80% or more. Here’s some more information on the numbers here, which are still somewhat unclear in terms of specifics but very clear about the general concept.
Surgical Masks
The surgical mask comes kind of folded up, and there is a thin strip of metal at the top. You want to fold it inward in half, so that your nose is in the crease, then fold the ends of the strip back out so that you get a good snug fit around the top of the mask. This will help keep it from fogging up your glasses as well.
Note the three folds in the top part of the mask. I’ve also expanded it so that it comes below my chin. This is the correct way to wear this mask.
Cutout Cloth Masks
In addition to the surgical variety, there are also lots of cloth masks on the market. Some of these have been cut out with a template from thick t-shirt material. They should cost a few dollars at most, but they should be only slightly less effective than the surgical mask at reducing transmission. In addition, these are fairly easy to breathe in so even after COVID-19 is over you might still get some use out of it when you exercise outside.
The proper way to wear this is to make it as tight as you can — mine has ear loops in two different sizes, but I always choose the smaller size. If you need to make one of these out of a t-shirt, you can find templates online. I’d recommend doubling up on these if they’re the best you can do and you need to go out for some reason.
The Baclava
My personal favorite mask is the balaclava-style one I picked up a 6-pack of on Amazon for around $5. These seem to be widely available and obviously quite cheap — but I like them because of the flexibility and ease of use. Also, having six of them makes it very easy to stay on top of the laundry side of the equation here.
In the picture, I’m wearing the balaclava folded in half. It’s quite comfortable and breathable because there is so much area underneath it, but it’s stretchy and does a decent job of filtration in this configuration. I’ll wear this to go visit people if we’re going to be indoors.
It’s easy to take off this style of mask — you just pull it down around your neck until you need it again!
But the biggest benefit of this style of mask is that it’s wide enough to fold FOUR TIMES and still cover your nose and mouth. The cigarette lighter test — try to blow out a lighter a foot or so from your face with your mask on, if the lighter goes out, your mask isn’t going to keep COVID-19 out — is failed by ALL of the masks in this article EXCEPT the 4x-folded balaclava-style mask.
What now?
I’m sure these options are all things you’re able to do for yourself, but don’t wait to get something figured out. You’ll need to mask up to go into public by state mandate (at last!) in most of the US before too long, so get something figured out that’s comfortable for your body and that you’ll be able to get used to wearing.
As everyone probably already knows, the main goal of masking up is to slow the spread of the disease — if everyone did it, we would almost certainly be finished soon with this pandemic.
So, the best thing any of us can do is to help the mask deniers in our social circles get with the program. It’s probably pointless to debate with them, but gifts are always appreciated! These solutions are all cheap enough to give out, so be nice and friendly and help us get everyone on the page here so we can get this virus in our collective rear-view mirror.
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Thomas Dylan Daniel is an existential philosopher, professional ethicist, author, and biophysicist. Connect via his website or Facebook, or have a look at his books.