Does a Mask Protect the Wearer from the Coronavirus? (Three-Pronged Path to Ending this Crisis) Part Three

Other Websites, Newsletters, and Books by the Director

Does a Mask Protect the Wearer from the Coronavirus?

(Three-Pronged Path to Ending this Crisis)

Part Three

By Gary F. Zeolla

This three-part article is continued from: Does a Mask Protect the Wearer from the Coronavirus? (Three-Pronged Path to Ending this Crisis) Part Two.

The answer to the title question was demonstrated to be “Yes” in Part One. Then Part Two addressed various issues related to masks and explained the subtitle. This third and final part provides information on the risks of the upcoming holidays and an update on President Trump.

Holidays

Having just mentioned “a holiday celebration,” it would be good to elaborate on that point. After each of the summer holidays of Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day, the USA saw a spike in CV cases then in deaths. And most of the celebrations for those holidays were outside, where the virus is less likely to spread than it is inside. But now, with this article being published in early October 2020, we are fast approaching our major autumn and winter holidays.

Next up is Halloween. The CDC has already issued recommendations that just about all Halloween/ autumn activities be curtailed. That includes treat or treat, hayrides, corn field mazes, Halloween parties, and haunted houses.

“Many traditional Halloween activities can be high-risk for spreading viruses,” the agency wrote in the advisory posted Monday.

“High-risk activities” entailed “crowded costume parties held indoors,” haunted houses, hayrides and tractor rides with people from outside of one’s household and, sadly, door-to-door trick-or-treating, per the notice. This includes “trunk-or-treat, where treats are handed out from trunks of cars lined up in large parking lots.”

“Traveling to a rural fall festival that is not in your community if you live in an area with community spread of COVID-19,” should be avoided as well, per the guidelines (New York Post).

However, some of these are outside, so, like the summer celebrations, they would not be near as unsafe as indoor activities. The indoors activities could be more problematic.

Then again, as mentioned in Part One, several governmental officials were most likely infected at the nomination ceremony for Amy Coney Barret, including possibly the President himself. That event was held outdoors, but there was a rather large audience of over 100 people in attendance, with no social distancing and little mask wearing. That shows that even with outdoor events, if you are not socially distanced, then you still need to wear a mask. “More than two dozen people linked to the White House have contracted covid-19 since the president’s Sept. 26 event announcing Judge Amy Coney Barrett as his nominee to the Supreme Court” (Trib. Trump restarting).

That also is why cases spiked many times in places that have seen the protests raging across the country. Though you might see some wearing masks, many are not wearing them correctly, and many are wearing bandanas, which, as discussed earlier, are not effective. Fore further details in this regard, see Coronavirus Surges Across the South.

Back to Halloween. By its very nature, it is perfect for the wearing of masks. Many costumes already incorporate masks, and it would be quite easy to incorporate them into others. And I would bet we see a lot of children dressing up as doctors and nurses, which include masks by their very nature. With such mask wearing, the risks of all of these activities could be significantly reduced.

To be clear, standard Halloween masks do not protect against the CV, as they have holes for the eyes, nose, and mouth. But surgical or clothes masks can easily be altered to fit with a costume. And I am sure retailers are hard at work at producing such masks, with Halloween themed CV protective masks being plentiful come Halloween.

Where the greater problem comes in is with Thanksgiving. That holiday is almost exclusively an indoor holiday. With being indoors, the risk of transmission of the virus is much greater. Moreover, most Thanksgiving celebrations involved extended family gatherings. And many people seem to think that is if is “just family” they do not need to give concern about the virus. But that is why I emphasized in the previous section that the virus knows nothing about personal relationships. It will infect family members that gather together just as well as strangers.

But given that attitude, what I am sure will happen across the country is extended families, consisting of members of multiple households, will gather together. There will be no mask wearing and no social distancing. In fact, in many families, there will be hugs and kisses and handshakes all around, and they will be crowded together inside grandma’s house or wherever the gathering is held.

That is a perfect environment for spreading the virus. All it will take is just one family member to be unknowingly infected, and just about everyone else at the gathering will be infected. Sadly, that will probably include elderly family members and those with comorbidities, and they could have serious consequences.

Now admittedly, if there is no one in the entire extended family who is infected, then nothing will come of the gathering. And that will probably be the case in more families than not. But with millions of such gatherings across the country, sadly, I predict we will see a major spike in cases in early December, then in deaths shortly after that. Then the whole scenario will repeat for Christmas, with more cases and deaths in early January.

Of course, there are other winter holidays, parties, and celebrations, culminating in New Years’ Eve. And a similar scenario will be repeated for each one of them, except with some of them involving friends and coworkers rather than just family. But the same attitude will be expressed at them all, “It’s just family (or friends, or coworkers), so mitigation efforts are not needed.” And many will be infected as a result.

Going back to Thanksgiving, “Traveling long distances, big family gatherings, watching parades and sports in person – these are all traditional Thanksgiving activities. However, this year, the CDC says they are all among the highest risk activities for spreading coronavirus” (CBS).

However, most extended families will ignore this guidance and meet anyways. Very few will cancel their multi-household Thanksgiving dinners because of the CV. And when they meet, I just do not see any let alone all of the family members wearing masks and making any attempt at social distancing. And even if they did when first entering the host’s home, when it comes time for the dinner itself, the masks would need to come off and people will sit close together. As a result, at the very least, anyone sitting near that one person who is infected will probably be infected. Then after dinner, it is hard to for me to see people putting their masks back on. As a result, those infected during dinner will infect others after dinner.

Adding to the risk at Thanksgiving is there will be many families with college students returning home for the holiday. Many of them will not have been practicing social distancing and mask-wearing when they were away at college.

The CDC says to consider the following in these regards:

The behaviors of attendees prior to the gathering – Gatherings with attendees who are not adhering to social distancing (staying at least 6 feet apart), mask wearing, hand washing, and other prevention behaviors pose more risk than gatherings with attendees who are engaging in these preventative behaviors.

The behaviors of attendees during the gathering – Gatherings with more preventive measures, such as mask wearing, social distancing, and hand washing, in place pose less risk than gatherings where fewer or no preventive measures are being implemented (CDC Holiday, bolding in original).

Maybe if the virus did not get so politicized, more people would take it seriously, and it would seem perfectly natural to utilize such mitigation efforts at family gatherings and other holiday events. That attitude could be fostered by the host family.

If they make it clear to guests beforehand that mask wearing will be expected, they are wearing masks when their guests enter their home, and they greet their guests with a hand wave rather than hugs and kisses and handshakes, then their guests are likely to follow suit. It would also help if a window or door is open if at all possible, and they space out the seating at the dinner table as much as possible. In this way, a multi-household extended family could gather in a safer manner, though a single household gathering would still be far safer.

But sadly, I just don’t see all of that happening en masse across the USA. Most families will ignore all of this and gather as if there is no pandemic. Again, the odds are that most will probably get away with it, as there are far more people at any given time who are not infected than who are infected. But there will be enough gatherings with that one infected person that we will see a spike in cases in early December, then in deaths later in the month, just in time for Christmas, when it will all repeat again, then again after New Year’s Eve and Day.

Update on the Trumps and Others in Washington

The end of Part One included a late-breaking update about President Trump, his lovely wife Melania, and his close advisor Hope Hicks and others in Washington DC being infected with the CV. Before ending this three-part article, it would be good to provide an update on their conditions.

Several other member of Trump’s inner circle later tested positive, such as White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany. At last count, at least 24 members of Trump’s inner circle have tested positive, though none have died or even have been hospitalized, as far as I know, with one exception besides Trump himself.

That could because people in the administration have been wearing masks more than the media would have us believe. Take Kayleigh, for example. In an interview with Martha McCallum on FNC, she said she almost always wears a mask. And she said she has no symptoms. The same has been said of Hope, who by last report, has experienced only mild symptoms.

Again, that is exactly what is to be expected with consistent mask wearing. A person can still get infected, but due to receiving a lower load of the virus, they have mild or no symptoms.

The exception here is former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who helped the President prep for the first debate. During that prep, he says he and the President were not wearing masks. Thus, if that is where he got infected, it was probably a large viral dose. That situation would be exactly what I described in my illustration, when both Luke and Robert were not wearing masks.

Now, it is true Kaleigh and Hope are much younger and apparently healthier than Christie. That could also be why they have milder cases than him. But there really is no way of knowing. But we do know that if you follow a healthy lifestyle and wear a mask, you are much more likely to have a mild case than if neither of those are true, as was the case with Christie.

Meanwhile, the President’s condition was apparently worse than we originally were led to believe. That is why he was transferred to Walter Reed Medical Center. While there, he received a number of therapeutics, some still not approved by the FDA. But they seemed to work, as he was released back to the White House Monday evening (10/5/20), about 6:30 pm, just 72 hours after being admitted.

Shortly before being released, he tweeted:

I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30 P.M. Feeling really good! Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago! 2:37 PM Oct 5, 2020

This tweet brings out a possible fourth prong to my three-prong approach to ending this crisis, that of improved therapeutics. But it does not quite fit with the other three. Those three (a healthy lifestyle, the wearing of masks, and a vaccine) will all reduce the risk of someone being infected with the CV or at least of someone having serious symptoms from a CV infection. But therapeutics are generally only given after someone develops more serious symptoms. And not everyone has access to the expensive and experimental drugs the President did and have a dozen doctors doting over them.

However, even less expensive and standard drugs can prevent people from getting even worse symptoms and shorten the recovery time, such as hydroxychloroquine. Some studies show hydroxychloroquine, if given with zinc and azithromycin as soon as someone tests positive for the CV, could significantly reduce the risk of serious symptoms. But due to hydroxychloroquine being politicized, its widespread use never materialized. If not for that politicization, widespread use of this combo could have significantly reduced our hospitalization and death rate.

Otherwise on President Trump, on Friday, October 9, 2020, he was interviewed by Rush Limbaugh on Rush’s radio show. The interview lasted two hours, with no commercial breaks. There was only a short break at the top and bottom of each hour for the news. The President’s voice sounded just as strong at the end of the two-hour interview as at the beginning, so I would say he is doing just fine. In fact, the next day, Trump’s doctor, the following was reported:

In a memo, Navy Cmdr. Dr. Sean Conley says Trump meets the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria for safely discontinuing isolation and that by “currently recognized standards” he is no longer considered a transmission risk (Fox News. Doctor).

On the same day, Chris Christie was released from the hospital, and by all reports, is doing just fine. I have not been able to find updates on the rest of those who were infected in Trump’s inner circle, including the First Lady. But I would assume if any of them had been hospitalized other than Christie and especially if anyone had died, we would have heard about it. As such, it sounds like everyone is doing just fine. That could be because most of them are young and healthy, being the age of Trump’s older children (30s-40s), with the exception of Christie and Trump himself. But Trump has an unique health situation, being very healthy, despite doing everything “wrong” health-wise. I discuss his unique health situation in my article President Trump’s First Annual Physical.

I think the biggest takeaway from the experience of the President and of those around him is that if you engage in one unsafe behavior after another, eventually you will get caught. The only question is, when you do, will it be a mild or severe case of the CV? If you are young and healthy, the odds are you will experience the former. If you are elderly and/ or have comorbidities, then you are at high risk of the latter. But there are steps you can take to improve your odds either way. That leads to the next section.

Steps That Work/
Steps That Don’t Work

The steps that work at reducing the risk of being infected with the CV or reducing the probability of having serious symptoms from a CV infection are: a healthy lifestyle, correct mask-wearing, social distancing, capacity limits, avoiding closely packed maskless crowds, handwashing, disinfecting frequently touched surfaces, being outdoors, good ventilation indoors, therapeutics, and a vaccine (when it is available), along with self-isolating for those who are sick or who test positive for the CV.

People can protect themselves by staying at least 6 feet away from others, wearing a mask, washing their hands, cleaning touched surfaces and staying home when sick…

Masks and good ventilation are crucial indoors. But they can be important outdoors too, (Trib. CDC).

Indoor gatherings generally pose more risk than outdoor gatherings. Indoor gatherings with poor ventilation pose more risk than those with good ventilation, such as those with open windows or doors (CDC).

These steps are more important for the elderly and those with comorbidities than those who are young and healthy. The main reason for the latter to follow these steps is to protect the former.

Steps that do not work are: lockdowns, business closures, stay at home orders, gathering bans, and other such draconian measures. These do not work, as they can cause more suffering than they prevent.

The World Health Organization’s special envoy on COVID-19 urged world leaders this week to stop “using lockdowns as your primary control method.”

“We in the World Health Organization do not advocate lockdowns as the primary means of control of this virus,” Dr. David Nabarro said to The Spectator’s Andrew Neil. “The only time we believe a lockdown is justified is to buy you time to reorganize, regroup, rebalance your resources, protect your health workers who are exhausted, but by and large, we’d rather not do it.”…

Nabarro went on to point out several of the negative consequences lockdowns have caused across the world, including devastating tourism industries and increased hunger and poverty….

In the United States, lockdowns have been tied to increased thoughts of suicide from children, a surge in drug overdoses, an uptick in domestic violence, and a study conducted in May concluded that stress and anxiety from lockdowns could destroy seven times the years of life that lockdowns potentially save (Washington Examiner. WHO).

Moreover, Dr. Deborah Birx has made it clear that all of these measures are just means to the end of social distancing. In other words, it does not matter where you are at and how many people are in a given area; all that matters is people are keeping six feet apart, or, if that is not possible, they are wearing masks. The afore-listed draconian measures simply are not necessary, if people practice personal responsibility in these regards when out and about.

I discuss all of these mitigation efforts in detail on my CV pages. But one measure I do not discuss in detail is testing. I only state on those pages that I did not think widespread testing was necessary for reopening the country, despite the howls for it back in the spring.

The reason testing does not work is, well, it does not work, meaning it is not foolproof. There is always the possibility of false positives and false negatives. The former will have people self-isolating unnecessarily, with its accompanying problems. But the latter is worse, as it is possibly deadly. It is also possibly how the CV infected so many in the White House. Everyone is tested before going into the White House, but someone probably tested negative who was really positive, and that enabled the virus to enter the building.

I’m not saying testing has no value. It can be useful as a general screening tool. But just because everyone in a group has tested negative, that does not mean the other mitigation efforts can be abandoned in that group. But that appears to be what happened with the White House personal and why so many got infected. That is another lesson we can learn from the President’s experience, a lesson his campaign seems to have learned:

Trump will address the Saturday group [on 10/10/20], expected to be at least several hundred supporters, from the White House balcony. All attendees are required to bring masks or will be provided with them, and also will be given temperature checks and asked to fill out a brief questionnaire. Attendees will be strongly encouraged to follow CDC guidelines, which include mask-wearing and social distancing (Trib. Trump restarting).

Note also, there is a difference between capacity limits and gathering bans. The former takes into account the posted fire safety capacity limit for a particular facility, while the latter just gives a ban on any gathering over an arbitrary number of people, regardless of building capacity. The former makes sense, as it enables social distancing, while the latter is just plain silly.

For example, a church with a seating capacity of 1,000 people can safely hold services with far more people than one with a capacity of 100 people. “Religious groups say large churches and temples built to accommodate hundreds of people can surely safety handle more than 10 or 25 people at a time, with the proper social distancing in place” (Trib. Court). For more in this regard, see Churches Are Essential.

One last practice that does not work is incorrect mask-wearing, as discussed in this part of this three-part article. Again, do not miss the incredible difference between correct and incorrect mask-wearing. The former works, while the latter is worse than useless, as it gives people a false sense of security.

Summary and No Mandates

In my three-part article Revised Coronavirus Numbers (Healthy Habits are Your Best Defense), I predicted that when all was said and done, there would be 1,000,000 deaths from the CV in the USA. But I hoped and prayed that horrendous number would not come to fruition.

That number was based on there being a vaccine around the time we reached 200,000 deaths. But that grim milestone has been reached, and we are still waiting for the vaccine. However, I also based that number on only 50% of the American public receiving the vaccine. If the vast majority of Americans would get it, then that death number could be greatly reduced.

That article was written before I did research on the importance of mask-wearing, so I did not consider such in my calculations. But now that I have, I can say that similarly, if the vast majority of Americans would just wear masks, and wear them correctly, that death number would be greatly reduced. Add to that a large majority of Americans adopting a healthy lifestyle, and we could quickly see an end to this crisis.

However, and very sadly, the wearing of masks and the forthcoming CV vaccine have been politicized, and millions of Americans refuse to do the former or will refuse to get the latter. And millions of Americans continue to follow an unhealthy lifestyle, without any encouragement from the authorities for them to change their unhealthy ways. All of this could lead to my grim prediction coming true.

But my plea to the reader is, do not let yourself become a statistic. Wear a mask. They work, both for protecting you, the wearer, from the CV and at protecting others from you if you have an asymptomatic infection. That is what the real science demonstrates. Do not let anyone tell you otherwise, no matter how dogmatically they assert it. And get vaccinated when it is available. And adopt a healthy lifestyle if you have not already.

If enough Americans did all three, we could end this crisis and get back to our normal lives. If not, then we will be dealing with it for years to come and my morbid prediction of one million American CV deaths will come to pass. But it does not have to be that way if American just did what needs to be done.

But for one last qualifier, I am in no way calling for a nationwide mask mandate, nor for government mandated vaccinations, and at not at all for the government to somehow mandate people follow a healthy lifestyle. All such mandates would be draconian and unconstitutional. However, I am encouraging people as strongly as I can to do all three, and I am encouraging the authorities to do the same. Personal responsibility not government mandates is what I would like to see.

But sadly, you have one political side downplaying the importance of mask-wearing, the other political side and anti-vaxxers trying to scare people away from the vaccine, and no one in authority talking about the importance of a healthy lifestyle in ending this pandemic. As such, personal responsibility is sorely lacking in this pandemic, with far too few taking it seriously. Consequently, I fear this crisis will be with us for a long time to come, with many more needlessly deaths to come.

M*A*S*H Video

I know this has been a lengthy three-part article. But I hope, if you read through it all, you have learned something worthwhile. But since this has been all serious tuff, I wanted to end on a light note. Click here for clips from the classic TV show M*A*S*H that portrays many of the issues that have been mentioned, but in a much more lighthearted manner. Trust me. The laughs will be worth the five minutes. But be patient. It takes several seconds for the video to begin.

Mid-November Update

Coronavirus-related face masks protect the wearer, too: CDC says in updated guidance.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday updated its guidance on coronavirus-related face masks to include protection for the wearer, too….

“Science takes time, and we must observe the infection in real-time to understand its spread.” …

“The CDC has continued to refine and update its guidance as the pandemic has progressed and more research comes up” (Fox News).

I reported about this emerging research a month ago in this three part article.. But it good the CDC finally caught up to my research and verified my conclusion. And note, this is how science works. Ideas get updated as new research emerges.

Actually, this was all verified by a female doctor on FNC a couple of weeks ago. She said, “We used to think a mask only protected others from the mask wearer. But now we know it also protects the mask wearer from others.” She then mentioned the issue of viral load, which I explain in my article.

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar reiterated this idea on FNC on November 12, 2020. And even President-Joe Biden said in one of his victory speeches, “If you wear a mask, … You just might save your own life.” I have also heard many other authorities over the last two weeks confirm the main thrust of this three-part article, that masks work at protecting the mask wearer. It is now just accepted science.

Meanwhile, many are saying the reason President Trump lost the election was because of his downplaying of the important of masks. Basically, the majority of Americans who voted for Biden did so because they believed Biden would be better at dealing with the pandemic than Trump. And the candidate’s differing attitudes towards masks was the most visible difference in that regard.

Secretary Azar also confirmed it is small gatherings of family and friends that is driving this pandemic, as people let their guard down when they are around “just family and friends.” Otherwise, Halloween did indeed lead to an increased in cases, due to indoor Halloween parties. “Many of the new cases reported attending parties and gatherings, including several Halloween parties, per the Allegheny County Health Department” (Trib. Allegheny county). And the authorities are now all giving the same warnings and recommendations I did for Thanksgiving:

      The fall surge similarly has been blamed largely on cold weather driving people inside and disdain for masks and social distancing, stoked by President Donald Trump and other politicians….

      The short-term outlook is grim, with colder weather and Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s ahead. Generations of family members gathering indoors for meals for extended periods “is not a recipe for anything good,” Hanage said (Trib/ AP. United).

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its Thanksgiving coronavirus guidelines on Monday and Tuesday [11/9-10/20] , warning against travel and recommending much smaller gatherings during the annual American tradition....

    Experts point to Canada, where Thanksgiving was celebrated Oct. 12. Clusters of cases tied to family gatherings followed. “This sucks. It really, really does,” Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said two weeks later (Trib/ Atlantic. CDC).

In regards to returning college students, there is this:

He cautioned college students who will be home for winter break, including the notorious party and get-together time, the night before Thanksgiving. He said young people who get the virus and have mild symptoms should not assume that is the case for everyone.

“Just because you might have a couple of days of the sniffles and some achiness and you get better – that doesn’t mean that’s the case for your aunt, for your uncle, for your parents, for your grandparents,” he said. “We really need young people to step up and serve the community” (Trib. Allegany officials)

Of course, this second paragraph would apply to anyone who has a mild case of the CV. Good for you, but bad if that leads people to neglect looking out for those who are more vulnerable, namely the elderly and those with comorbidities.

Basically, as of November 13, 2020, everything I said in this three-part article is proving to be correct.

Creationist Diet
Second Edition
A Comprehensive Guide to Bible and Science Based Nutrition