Masks Coming Down. Will Cases Go Up?
By DW Davis
@DWDavis (25797)
United States
February 22, 2022 4:48pm CST
Last Thursday, our Governor declared that schools, offices, and stores should drop their mask mandates and move to voluntary masking for those who still prefer to be protected and protect others.
As a result, my principal, after polling the staff and parents, announced that beginning February 28, our school would become a mask optional facility. Interestingly enough, because of this change, we are having to update our procedure for how we handle classwide and schoolwide quarantines. We have to do this because, though we haven't had a single case of COVID transmission traced to our school since we went back to in-person learning in August of 2020, we anticipate eliminating masks could possibly result in more than a few.
What gets to me is the flawed logic behind eliminating the masks. Anti-maskers claim students are being adversely affected by having to wear masks. Valid scientific studies show otherwise. National Geographic has an excellent article on this.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/do-masks-really-harm-kids-heres-what-the-science-says
I have not decided if I will discontinue wearing my mask or not. I am double vaxxed and boosted and know the vaccine works. I also know the mask I wear is over 90% effective at stopping virus-sized particles from passing through. I know this because a study by the same independent research lab that found single-layer cloth masks are only 40% effective tested the 3-layer plus filter masks like I wear.
For those not aware, the declaration that cloth masks aren't effective was made concerning the testing on single-layer cloth masks. The data on triple-layered masks was ignored by the anti-maskers and the media.
As for being vaccinated: the graphic I've used as my photo kind of says all that needs to be said about that.
18 people like this
15 responses
@marguicha (230334)
• Chile
22 Feb 22
I am suffering the side effects of my 4th dose. But if I had to haave another one, I´d extend my arm. I wear masks and don´t accept people the go around unmasked or unvaccined, even if they are my loved ones.
3 people like this
@marguicha (230334)
• Chile
22 Feb 22
@DWDavis They were more interested in a 4th dose for the elder after the omicron started.
2 people like this
@SophiaMorros (5044)
• Belews Creek, North Carolina
22 Feb 22
On the one hand, I would expect that cases to go up, but on the other hand just about everyone I know vaxxed or not vaxxed has had Covid. Most of them within the past couple of months. I suspect natural immunity is going to reduce the number of cases going forward regardless of masking. That said, I will continue to mask when I am out and about running errands.
3 people like this
@DWDavis (25797)
• United States
23 Feb 22
The vaccine is unique compared to the old style of killed virus vaccines. You might still get Covid, but the vast majority of vaccinated who do suffer only mild symptoms, whereas the unvaccinated have a much higher chance of hospitalization. The unvaxxed are also more prone to permanent damage from the virus than those who are vaccinated.
Natural immunity will only work if enough people become immune to prevent the virus from mutating into new variants as rapidly as it has been. The more people vaccinated, the slower the likelihood of mutation.
@Torunn (8606)
• Norway
23 Feb 22
We never had masks in schools or at the university. At the university, the spread has been outside campus and as long as they kept the distance regulations going, that was also the case for schools.
Once they stopped distance regulations and reminding you all day to wash your hands, numbers jumped.
But what happened here is mainly a lot of kids, students and teachers are absent for about a week. Most are vaccinated, so I suppose the problems will come in places if there's enough unvaccinated to fill the hospitals.
What do you teach? #curious
2 people like this
@wolfgirl569 (135583)
• Marion, Ohio
23 Feb 22
I only wear one when I have to. But I am not constantly around large groups of people inside either.
2 people like this
@DWDavis (25797)
• United States
25 Feb 22
In truth, mask-wearing never reached must past 50%, and those who wore them often wore them incorrectly, so we don't know if proper masking by a large majority of people, had it started early enough, would have helped more or not.
I do know the school I teach at had zero cases of transmission while those with more relaxed mask rules were repeatedly closing because of transmission clusters.
1 person likes this
@porwest (112717)
• United States
25 Feb 22
@DWDavis The problem I had with masks from day one really had nothing to do with the masks themselves or the idea of it. It had to with what was acceptable as a mask. I mean, you could have walked into a place with a tissue over your face and that was fine.
But we all know that a tissue is not a mask.
So, if the CDC and Fauci and whoever else were adamant that masks worked, then what should have been laid out from day one was to wear a PROPER mask.
Part of that may be a product of my military background, you know. Many people do not know that facial hair is not allowed in the military NOT because of grooming or appearance. It is to ensure a gas mask or OBA fits properly to actually be effective.
2 people like this
@much2say (57760)
• Los Angeles, California
23 Feb 22
For now, our school district just lifted the mask mandate only for outdoors starting today. But otherwise the kids will still have to wear masks indoors (and we are all for that). No matter what, we/family will continue with the masks. Interesting about the cloth masks . . . we've had the double/triple layered ones and were using them with the surgical type ones - but now no cloth ones are allowed in schools at all.
2 people like this
@FourWalls (86575)
• United States
23 Feb 22
I’ve been talking about what the media says (and doesn’t say) to my psychologist. I’m seeing her for hypochondria, and I’ve told her that our information flow seems geared toward making people hypochondriacs: “study says sneezing four times is more likely to cause cancer than sneezing three times.” 
(Then, at the very end, “More research is needed. Well, dolts, why don’t you wait until the research is done to tell us the FULL story?)
The first mask I got when this started was a three-layer mask. I still have it.
(Then, at the very end, “More research is needed. Well, dolts, why don’t you wait until the research is done to tell us the FULL story?)
The first mask I got when this started was a three-layer mask. I still have it.1 person likes this
@Metsrock69 (3617)
• United States
23 Feb 22
God I hope not . This mask thing is getting too old really fast
2 people like this
@sjvg1976 (42727)
• Delhi, India
23 Feb 22
There is no such declaration here in India, here the face masks are still mandatory. When I have been reading the news about the new variant it would not be a good decision in my opinion. The cases certainly will rise with this decision. Some people put on masks because it's mandatory not to protect themselves or others, if they discontinue it the consequences will be bad.
1 person likes this
