Universal Mask Wearing Is the Quickest Way to Restart the California Economy
We urgently need universal mask wearing to slow down the spread of COVID-19 and restore our economy.
This is CDC's advice on how healthcare providers can protect themselves if they suspect that a patient has COVID-19:
" Assess and triage these patients with acute respiratory symptoms and risk factors for COVID-19 to minimize chances of exposure, including placing a facemask on the patient and placing them in an examination room with the door closed." (What Healthcare Personnel Should Know about Caring for Patients with Confirmed or Possible COVID-19 Infection https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/caring-for-pat...)
If a facemask on a patient can protect the doctor in close proximity, it surely can also protect the general public. Yet the message from our nation's leadership is that mask wearing is ineffective for the general public (Why Telling People They Don’t Need Masks Backfired https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/opinion/coronavirus-face-...). Yes, it is not 100% effective in protecting an individual from others, but it is absolutely effective in protecting the general public from a potential patient. This is the herd immunity we can quickly achieve without waiting for a vaccine:
"An 80% compliance rate essentially eliminated the influenza outbreak. " (Modeling the Effectiveness of Respiratory Protective Devices in Reducing Influenza Outbreak https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30229968)
California is in a unique place to lead the nation and restore its own economy. We have a large Asian population that are receptive to mask wearing but are wary of being singled out. We have technology companies that can come up with solutions for mask making. We have idled workers that can be quickly retrained to jumpstart mask manufacturing. China was able to ramp up production 12 times in February alone. We can do it too.
What we need to do is to legally require people to wear masks in public and in the workplace to protect each other. We don't need to wear N95 respirators that are hard to use and that should rightly be reserved for medical workers; we can wear masks that are much more breathable to protect others from our own droplets. By making it a legal requirement, companies like Tesla will be motivated to either quickly secure masks from suppliers or, better yet, start making and supplying masks for their own employees and for the public. Asian countries have shown that universal mask wearing can prevent large outbreaks and slow down the spread of the disease without shutting down their economy. Let's learn from their experience. Governor Newsom should immediately work on this with the state legislature in order to lead us to a speedy recovery.