What does wearing a mask do for you? For others?

Covid-19 is still here and its still a serious virus, even deadly for some --i..e., the elderly and anyone with underlying health conditions, including diabetes, asthma and other lung related diseases, auto-immune diseases, heart diseases and this virus can even be deadly for young children.  Pondering the effectiveness of completely shutting down our nation and now reopening across the country aside --before the roll-out of an effective vaccine for Covid-19-- many of you must be wondering what does wearing a mask actually do for me?


Well a brilliant fluid dynamics engineer made a helpful video in answer the above question.  This video shows the particles that the average person emits into the air while simply breathing, talking, coughing, etc. without wearing a mask and then it contrasts this with wearing a mask --both covering the nose and only covering the mouth with the nose exposed.  This video really is quite illuminating.  I bet most of us never realized how much particle matter/droplets we actually project out into the space around us?  This realization is especially mind-boggling in light of the current pandemic!  To me, this video also points out why, even with masks, there is still a need for 6 feet of social-distancing.  Basically, a mask helps to reduce and limit the range of particulates exhaled, but it does not completely eliminate all exhaled particulate matter.  You can also see clearly from these images that wearing a mask with your NOSE HANGING out doesn't work!!!

                                       Air-flow Video Engineer Blog:  Matthew E. Staymates

                         CLICK HERE TO WATCH: Air-flow Video for Human Respiration



What this video demonstrates is that your choosing NOT to wear out in public actually puts other people at risk for contracting the virus, especially in light of the fact that large numbers of people are asymptomatic carriers of Covid-19.  You may not feel you, personally, are at risk for Covid-19 and think that for this reason you will choose not to wear a mask, but your decision not to wear a mask out in public --in light of this video-- winds up being really inconsiderate and downright selfish.  We are living in difficult times and with these challenging times comes a responsibility to think beyond ourselves and to maybe go the extra mile by putting ourselves at an inconvenience by wearing a mask, simply because it may help to keep someone else SAFE.  And we only have to do this until a vaccine becomes widely available ... Hopefully, just for a matter of months.  Surely, we can all handle this minor inconvenience for just few short months???  In this way, people who might be at some risk can still get out to get groceries, etc.  Because not everyone has someone who will go out and shop for them.  And sometimes, at risk people might get a little stir crazy too!  Ever stop to think of that?

What better way to unite as a country than to adopt a policy of always wearing a mask when out in public? Wearing a mask should serve as a sign of unity of respect for our fellow citizens of this amazing nation.  Because ultimately, your choice DOES AFFECT EVERYONE AROUND YOU ... The more you know ....  So wear your face-covering/mask.  Do it because you are a decent person and you have the ability to think of someone beyond yourself.  Wear your mask for someone's pre-compromised child, mother, sister, brother, grandparent.  Wearing a mask shows you truly respect and care for others.

By the way, I have read numerous instances of people who were previously infected with Covid-19, since recovered, being re-infected with Covid-19 for a second time.  So having had the Covid-19 virus already apparently does not mean that you cannot be re-infected.  You can be re-infected and even potentially become an asymptomatic carrier and spreader of the Covid-19 virus!

Final thought, I hope that our President, Donald J. Trump, will set the stage for mask wearing by dawning his own mask at his upcoming re-election rally this weekend.  If the President wants my vote, he should set a good example for the rest of the nation by starting to wear a MASK when he is out in public/in group settings!!!

6/21/202  Thinking on our nation's ongoing profound inability to unify in the face of adversity ... I think at the core of this inability to unite lies an innate selfishness, a me-centeredness if you will.  With great freedoms can come the risk of great selfishness?  I mean, if you cannot unite in the face of a pandemic, then when exactly can you ever unite as a country?  Wearing a mask is a chance to show unity and respect for our fellow countrymen during a time of heightened anxiety and uncertainty for so many.  Is that really too much to ask of Americans????

==> No mask for Trump walking into rally or during the speech.  Sad!  When it comes to setting examples, Trump gets an "F" in my book.  Ever the rebel, even when the stakes are so very high?  Let's see how those odds wind up playing out for him, both with respect to his contracting the virus as well as at the polls come November 2020?