Coronaviruses are not political

Recently, I have heard some thoughtful arguments against COVID-19 masks and the requirements to wear them.

I respect the opinions I have heard, but I still think they are dangerously wrong in the face of a worldwide pandemic of a very contagious, too-often fatal and debilitating disease.

As with previous pandemics, this one can only be gotten rid of by near-universal adoption of inconvenient preventive measures.

I heard from some people that masks are useless because viruses can pass right through them.

They say the viruses are so tiny that even trapping moisture droplets, in which the viruses travel outside the body, is ineffective.

While nobody has come up with a definitive amount of virus it takes to spread the disease, there is general agreement that the higher the dose of virus, the worse the symptoms are.

If masks capture the moisture that contains the lion’s share of the virus, the amount of virus that gets through is still much smaller, which decreases the likelihood you will make someone else seriously ill with COVID-19.

If you scratch your masked nose and then shake hands with someone, however, all bets may be off. You should not touch the mask when it’s on your face.

Do the masks cause illness for the wearer? Surgeons and nurses who wear highly restrictive medical mask all day sometimes, say no, they don’t, unless you have a condition that is already restricting your oxygen intake.

Now, I also heard that COVID-19 was having no net effect on overall death rates in Texas.

A search revealed only that Gov. Greg Abbott’s lifting of mask and business restrictions had no effect on death rates five weeks later.

That seems to be because people did not change their behavior despite the governor’s order.

Economist Dhaval Dave and co-authors concluded after studying the effects of Abbott’s order: “We find that the Texas reopening had little impact on stay-at-home behavior or on foot traffic at numerous business locations ... We find no evidence that the reopening affected the rate of new COVID-19 cases ... In addition, we find that state-level COVID-19 mortality rates were unaffected by the reopening.”

But COVID-19’s effect on overall death rates throughout 2020 was significant, according to the Houston Chronicle.

In 2020, Texas’ death rate jumped 22 percent, the largest single-year increase in at least five decades, the Chronicle reported.

Deaths in Texas historically are cyclical, Mark Hayward, a sociology professor at the University of Texas at Austin, told the Chronicle. “During the pandemic, however, that pattern was disrupted by a surge in mortality with no precedent in modern history.”

People will believe what they want to believe.

I haven’t worn a mask for weeks now, and I would like to believe COVID-19 is over.

Credible media, however, report that the delta variant may be bringing COVID-19 back to its peak strength.

Coronaviruses are not political. They’re just very contagious and potentially deadly.

If I have to, I’ll dust off my masks, sigh, and strap one on.

Steve Hansen writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

[email protected]