It seems COVID-19 restrictions, quarantine, mask mandates, curfews, limited capacity, etc. are coming to end. And believe me, I’m just as ready as the next person to get back to the old “normal.”
But is ditching the face underwear really a good decision right now?
In my opinion, probably not. If you’re going to keep anything from our COVID-19 experience for a little longer, it’s probably the masks.
Yes, they’re uncomfortable. Yes, in the summer they are god awful and like the seventh layer of hell on your face. Yes, they’re high maintenance (if you actually clean them correctly…). But it’s the only thing that medical professionals, like Dr. Fauci, swear by and are continuing to encourage – despite vaccine rollouts.
I heard from my mother the other day that Ohio, my home state, is at 20 percent vaccinated – which is great, but herd immunity is far from being achieved at this point. According to the World Health Organization, herd immunity can only happen when a large amount of the population is vaccinated. For example, it took 95 percent of the population to tame the measles, and 80 percent to tame polio. COVID-19 percentages for herd immunity are not quite known, and it won’t be for a while due to it being so new. However, the vaccine rollout isn’t fast enough yet to achieve anything.
Look at the United States, for example, we are only 9.5 percent vaccinated (both doses), according to The New York Times. Other countries, like Israel, is 43 percent vaccinated, at the highest in the world. But overall, the world is at less than 1 percent vaccinated…and that’s with 68.6 million people, as of March 8, 2021, being fully vaccinated.
So why are we so eager to give up the mask mandates?
Is it because America has a track record of saying, “I’m done” and being done when we tired of things? Or do states like Texas and Florida really think that their citizens, and citizens of the rest of the world by extension, are safe without masks?
It seems that COVID-19 has proven that we are not safe without one until we are vaccinated, and even then, without the majority of the populated being vaccinated, we aren’t safe.
Our new President, Joe Biden, doesn’t think Texas and other states are safe either. He called it, “Neanderthal thinking” and said Texas made a “big mistake.”
So now we have our President, the most known doctor in America, and several others saying that ditching the mask isn’t a smart idea. And to be honest, I don’t know why some states ever thought it was a “good idea.”
Sure, maybe it’s time to get back out there and enjoy life a little more. Go out to eat with your friends and go back to the stores instead of ordering curbside pickup, but do it safely. Cover up your nose and mouth and go have fun.
Getting rid of masks entirely will only put us back in the same position we were at the start of this. Do we really want to go through stay-at-home orders and quarantine again? I don’t.
Don’t be stupid. Wear a mask, get vaccinated when you can, and just hold off a little longer and we’ll get there.
We did this for a year. What’s a few more months?