Masks, Protection, and Our National Character
Public health is inherently unselfish; why aren’t we?
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed its guidance around mask-wearing to say that masks protect the wearer as well as others around them, presumably to encourage mask-wearing. This is notable for what it says about our national character.
For context: Fabric masks are not N95s, which we know offer substantial protection to the wearer. Cloth or surgical masks provide some limited protection against larger droplets, and as Dr. Saskia Popescu points out, this is variable.
Most of the data for this protection is from health care settings, which can be very different from using them in the real world. The primary function of wearing cloth and surgical masks is source control, and the primary benefit they offer is to others.
It says a lot about our priorities that the CDC has to issue guidance appealing directly to an individual’s self-interest to overcome the resistance to employing easy-to-implement, safe public health measures.
To me, this also says a lot about how deeply divided we are as a nation. If we can’t convince millions of Americans that they should wear masks for the benefit of others rather than to benefit themselves, it suggests that we no longer value being one nation, indivisible.
I think of myself as a patriot, and of course I deeply value freedom, including individual freedom. But I also value my community and my people as a nation. We can only fight this pandemic by unifying as a nation and by caring about others.
It says a lot about our priorities that the CDC has to issue guidance appealing directly to an individual’s self-interest to overcome the resistance to employing easy-to-implement, safe public health measures.
I was on the fence about masks early in the pandemic (as critics love to point out), but the data persuaded me that they are an important tool for reducing community transmission. So I have been wearing masks in public for months now because it’s not about me.
Public health is inherently unselfish, so I’m saddened and disappointed that the greater good isn’t sufficiently motivating to get everyone on board and we have to put critical guidance into a selfish context.
We all need to do our part. At the end of the day, I hope this encourages people to wear masks. I just wish we didn’t have to encourage people to care for their communities by appealing to individual interests.
This is pulled and lightly edited from my November 11 Twitter thread.
