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Tuesday, August 31, 2021

To clarify vaccination and masks

Vaccination and masks are both crucial at the moment, but they accomplish different things.

In the context of the delta strain, vaccination:

  • reduces the possibility that you develop symptomatic illness,
  • greatly reduces the possibility that you require hospitalization,
  • nearly eliminates the possibility of your death,
  • saves a space in a hospital for someone else who has serious Covid or a problem unrelated to Covid (car accident, heart attack, stroke, cancer surgery, etc), and
  • reduces financial stress on the insurance providers (another reason why employers are beginning to require vaccination before their employees can return to the office.)

If everyone gets vaccinated, the hospitals will get back to a sustainable patient load. Well, except for the pediatric ICUs.

In the context of the delta strain, a mask:

  • nearly eliminates the possibility that you pass the virus to someone else, and
  • if the mask is a true N95 and is properly worn, greatly reduces the possibility that you acquire the virus.
If everyone wore a mask in a public place, the pandemic would subside.

As long as the pandemic is raging, I don't want to be in a public indoor place unless 100% of the people are wearing masks 100% of the time. I'm vulnerable indoors when someone else — anyone but my wife  — isn't wearing a mask, except when I'm wearing an N95. For the time being, this rules out indoor restaurants except to duck in the door briefly and get takeout.

Gatherings with friends are no exception. There are many anecdotes of small parties where half the people attending came down with Covid. If you hold a party at your house or you're invited to one, consider the mask situation carefully.

Another example: when I visit a former neighbor who's now living in an assisted living facility, I wear an N95.

Outdoors is ok without masks as long as air can move freely and everyone truly is outdoors. I don't believe a football stadium filled to the brim on a day with stagnant wind is safe. Besides, people in stadiums will still line up at metal detectors, concession stands, and bathrooms. That's an N95 situation for me, if I go at all.

Your mileage may vary. I'm at higher risk than the average person, so I'm being more cautious than perhaps you care to be. But remember, 25-40% of the population is at higher risk (age, weight, preexisting medical conditions such as diabetes, etc). If you are at higher risk, give thought to where you personally draw the line on your exposure.

But for God's sake, get vaccinated and wear a mask when you're in public indoors. Just yesterday I stared down another customer at the tire store. Eventually he pulled a mask out of his pocket and put it on.

at 9:33 AM