Written October 31st, 2020
Before the outbreak of this virus, the only time I ever wore a mask was at the doctors when I would have a cough or something. Now, it’s kind of like my cell phone: I bring it everywhere, if I forget it then there are bad consequences, and I use it quite a lot throughout the day. I must admit, wearing one can be pretty annoying and make it hard to breathe. But knowing that I am being safe and responsible makes up for it. All over social media I have seen many people argue over wearing a mask, even though it’s not that hard to do. People like to claim that it doesn’t help/ doesn’t effectively protect against the virus, and the most radical of them like to claim that it’s a hoax- which is a weird claim considering the amount of lives lost due to covid. I can see where some of these people get their ignorant arguments from: the fact that the president neglects wearing one. Donald Trump is the president of the United States, as we all know, and he rarely wears a mask, therefore all of his supporters think it is acceptable to not wear a mask either. This is ironic, however, since Trump got covid; however seeing as he recovered pretty quickly, many of his supporters still don’t take it seriously. I hope everyone knows that Trump recovered quickly because his high authority allotted him access to the best medicine and top doctors. Anyways, let’s get back on topic. Wearing a mask DEFINITELY helps and today I will be providing the statistics to prove my point.
The whole point of wearing the mask over your nose and mouth is to protect yourself from droplets that a COVID-19 carrier may eject and then also protect other people from your germs. Masks like the N95 are able to filter out 95% of airborne particles that may contain the virus. In terms of contagiousness and wearing a mask, the probability for a COVID carrier to give the virus to someone wearing a mask is 70%. The probability of someone with Covid wearing a mask giving it to someone not wearing a mask is 5%, and the probability of one person with covid wearing a mask giving it to another person wearing a mask is a mere 1.5%! From this data, we can see how wearing a mask severely decreases the chances one has of contracting the virus from another person. Some other statistics we can take into account are the states with the most people wearing masks compared to the amount of cases in that state. For example, South Carolina has had a bit over 175,000 cases in total and 7,045 cases in the past 7 days. Less than 60% of their population wears a mask. There is definitely a correlation between wearing a mask and cases of the virus. Another example is Wisconsin. They have had 232,062 cases and over 31,000 cases in the past 7 days. In Wisconsin, less than 60% of their population has been wearing a mask. Another case in point that goes with this is that you have to also socially distance for maximum protection, otherwise wearing a mask may not be AS effective. For example, California has had over 916k cases and 30,000 in the past 7 days. Despite this vast number of cases, over 80% of the population has been wearing a mask. Due to the high population in California, there is more population density which contributes negatively to social distancing and makes it easier to get the virus despite wearing a mask. Wisconsin and California have had a similar number of cases in the past 7 days, which can make you think that it doesn’t matter if you wear a mask because Wisconsin has few people wearing masks compared to California and they still have had the same amount of cases this week. However, Wisconsin’s population is 31.6 MILLION less than California’s population, therefore, proportionately Wisconsin has had more cases and this reflects the low amount of people wearing a mask.
With all of this data I have provided, there is no way you can neglect to see the correlation between wearing a mask and contracting the virus. It doesn’t really matter what kind of mask you wear: it can be a cloth mask, a bandana, a medical mask, a scarf, anything that covers your nose and mouth effectively. If you cannot afford a mask, there are many places that give them out for free like your local grocery store. Amazon also sells them for really cheap and they come in lots of different stylish patterns that you can match with your outfit- this way you can be fashionable and responsible! Thank you so much for reading! Stay safe and be cautious.
