Déjà vu All Over Again…Wear Your Mask!

“What’s old is new”, “Hard head makes a soft behind”. These are examples of acknowledgement that bad things happen when we don’t learn from prior bad experiences.  This is the unfortunate reality of the preventable disaster that is the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA. We are tragically plummeting toward the fourth peak of this pandemic.  Confirmed cases are nearly 38 million in the USA and deaths have increased to nearly 628,000.  The Delta variant is now 99% of the isolates of Covid-19 found in the US.  The protectiveness of our vaccines is starting to wane although they remain very effective at preventing serious disease, hospitalizations, and deaths. As a result of these two factors the FDA has recommended a booster dose for the immunocompromised and very high-risk groups, and they may eventually approve boosters for everyone. Many states, particularly in the South, are beyond their capacity to care for the sick.  Two field hospitals have been set up in Mississippi in the parking garages at the only Level 1 trauma center in the state. They are out of ICU beds. Alabama and Louisiana are tethering on the brink of medical disaster as federal medical units are warmly greeted as they provide care and a respite for the overwhelmed nursing and medical staffs.  These dramatic increases in cases and hospitalizations are likely to confront the northern states once the weather is cooler and people start staying indoors.  Now and in the future, we are likely to see the continuing, albeit avoidable, trend of the Covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths occurring in the unvaccinated. Approximately 2% of the 19,000 Ohioans hospitalized this year were among the ranks of the vaccinated. Only 1% of the people who died from Covid-19 this year in Ohio had been vaccinated. It is exceedingly clear that getting vaccinated is the way to cope with Covid-19!  

The great news is that vaccinations have increased in our country over the last two weeks. In fact, on August 20th over a million citizens received a Covid-19 vaccination.  Multiple news reports are that the FDA will license the Pfizer vaccine as early as 8/23/2021 and thereby remove the Emergency Use Authorization. It will be interesting to see if there is a rise in vaccinations since one of the frequent excuses for not getting vaccinated is that the vaccines are not licensed. 

While we work and gradually overcome vaccine hesitancy it is worthwhile to revisit one of the mitigation measures that have been recommended for over a year.  Specifically, the wearing of a mask! Unfortunately, mask wearing has become a political football as governors prohibit mandates from being put back in place. Citizens, governments at all levels, and the courts are in the mist of ferreting this issue out. Healthcare providers want to save lives and get up out of this pandemic ASAP. Science ought to be our guide and not political ideology and misinformation. The science is that the mask keeps your respiratory droplets and particles from infecting other people. We now know that the Delta variant is 2-3 times more contagious than the original strain of the virus. Additionally, the viral load which exists in an infected person is much greater, irrespective of vaccination status. In spite of the new data developed because of the Delta variant, many skeptics doubt the effectiveness of masks.  In the literature I find thirty-nine (39) peer-reviewed studies which show the effectiveness of masking.  A number of these are published in prestigious medical journals such as JAMA, New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, and the Annals of Internal Medicine. The loud proclamations of a boisterous few can not just make the science disappear from reputable publications. There is additional great anecdotal evidence of the value of masking, social distancing, hand washing, and increased flu vaccination when one looks at the influenza numbers from 2020.  There were 1,016 US cases last season compared to 65,000 the season before.   

None of us want to wear masks again, but the Delta variant is out of control. We have the tools to stop the spread, hospitalizations, and deaths.  Get vaccinated and WEAR a mask when you are indoors with people with whom you do not live.