Why you should wear a mask to prevent transmission of SARS-COV-2 and infection with COVID-19

Coronavirus studies by Engin Akyurt via pixabay.com

Here is an article published in Arxiv, an e-print server for scientific articles of immediate interest: “Universal Masking is Urgent in the COVID-19 Pandemic: SEIR and Agent Based Models, Empirical Validation, Policy Recommendations”– which was made available on April 22.  It contains a link: http://dek.ai/masks4all/  (not secure) which has a video and a lot of promotional material endorsing the idea that everyone should wear masks to cut down on the transmission of COVID-19.  It says that even home-made cloth masks provide significant protection.

I’m impressed by this promotional material and I feel very badly that our leaders haven’t endorsed this idea more strongly.  It is far better, since we can’t tolerate being locked down any longer, for everyone to wear a mask when they go outside.  The shortage of masks that prevailed early in this pandemic seems to have eased; they are even available on those TV channels that sell gemstones, watches, knives, and the like.

So buy a mask, or make one, and go out there to celebrate the summer.  We’re going to have a bad time this fall, so we should enjoy life while it lasts.  Also, if you’re out there protesting, definitely wear a mask if you don’t have a gas mask.