Wearing a mask helps protect public health, and will help restore economy

Editor:

Masks protect others, not the one wearing the mask. I have heard it argued that wearing a mask infringes on one’s rights. You do not have a right to infect others.

People can be asymptotic and spread the virus unknowingly. Masks help prevent the spread of the disease. Professor Trisha Greenhalgh OBE and Jeremy Howard in a paper, “The Science Behind why Masks Limit COVID-19 Spread #Masks4All” (4/13/2020) reported, scientist have looked at wearing a mask from the physics of droplets and aerosols, they have examined the material of face masks, and they have done mathematics of transmission of virus and Covid-19. They concluded: “Near-universal adoption of non-medical masks in public (in conjunction with other measures like test & trace) can reduce effective-R below 1.0 and stop the community spread of the virus.”

The Washington Post stated that there are: “34 scientific papers indicating basic masks can be effective in reducing virus transmission in public — and not a single paper that shows clear evidence that they cannot.”

Professor Abaluck et.al (2020) found that “the benefits of each additional cloth mask worn by the public are conservatively in the $3,000-$6,000 range due to their impact in slowing the spread of the virus.”

As a matter of civic responsibility to your family, your friends, your neighbors, and your community, you should wear a mask in public. Wearing a mask helps to stop the spread of the virus, saves lives, and restores our economy.

William Fine

Brockport