A surgical mask, lightweight and effective, can save your life
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I’m a travel writer who hasn’t traveled at all, but my trip could be of interest for a year.
On March 11, 2020, when around 4,000 people died from the virus worldwide, the World Health Organization assessed “Covid-19 as a pandemic.”
A year later, in the United States alone, more than 520,000 people have died, and 1,500 per day are still dying from Covid-19. Most Americans have not yet been vaccinated, and dangerous coronavirus changes are on the rise.
But this week, Texas and Mississippi regulators removed all business restrictions – and removed mask orders.
The last time I was in a restaurant was just a year ago, on March 6, 2020, when I went to a news lunch in Miami. I was becoming aware of the dangerous virus, despite confirmation from our president that “everything is under control.” In fact I had postponed a trip to New York City to two weeks earlier, even though I was planning to talk to two groups about my new book.
I felt obliged to go to lunch, and realized that I was in Miami, where there seemed to be very few people who had contracted the virus, unlike China, Northern Italy and New York, where things were starting to get really bad. I told myself “this was not the last time,” as someone reasoning unprotected sex.
Sitting inside at the restaurant, I still didn’t realize that Covid-19 spreads mostly with air droplets, and with asymptomatic people. No one was wearing masks and there was still no social pace in the direction, and things looked pretty normal, but we didn’t shake hands.
And then I found out that the guest sitting with me was from Italy, and that he had just entered through New York.
That’s how it often goes in my life: a small surprise with big consequences, and why my grandmother would often tell me “better safe than sorry. “I fled home, laid off informally, counting the days with anxiety, without telling anyone, accepting that it was a long shot. But surely enough, 10 days later – five days after the WHO declared the condition a “pandemic,” I experienced the first symptoms in what would have been diagnosed as Covid-19. after that.
From revealing myself that I was once – inside without a mask, and without social distance – I suffered a difficult case, with respiratory problems, and then six months of long Covid exile. I’ve gone into detail before, but we can say that I’m still not 100 percent myself.
The lunch was definitely not worth a year ago.
Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, stressed that people should “wear masks to ensure that vaccines prevent the spread of …. By the time we fall we will we have some regularity. Another six to nine months. But not yet. ”
Variations are now a real threat, and there have been explosions in Brazil, the United Kingdom and many parts of the world: it is now estimated that a quarter of the new cases in Florida are come from a variety of UK.
“We need to try to avoid the fourth wave,” Dr. Tom Friedan, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a television interview. “Stay in there …. vaccines work. We get to a new normal level. “
But we are not there yet.
The CDC will soon issue new guidelines on small gatherings of vaccinated Americans. Right now this group, myself included, can be very safe amongst ourselves, especially outdoors. And when most people are embarrassed, and cases, hospitals and deaths fall further, we may feel ready to go without a mask.
But here are five reasons why there is still no time to lower our guard in public places, and why we should go into hiding, despite what some politicians say – and even a double mask, to interior special.
1- It is not yet known when we enter a room what percentage of people do not receive the vaccine.
2- Scientists are not entirely sure whether vaccinated people are spreading the virus to those who are not getting the vaccine. While all Covid-19 vaccines protect people from serious illness and death, it is unclear how well they stop the virus from spreading to others.
3- The Covid vaccine relieves severe infection but not infection, similar to influenza inoculations.
4- Some vaccines are less effective in preventing infections with some modifications, and may allow more viruses to spread. And the variations are growing rapidly across much of the world.
5- The potential of Long Covid, even if you get a mild case of Covid-19, and protected by a vaccine, is reason enough to be cautious.
Don’t take chances, especially now, when we are probably within months of passing this virus. Follow CDC instructions. (We know that being careful in the past year, especially wearing masks, has reduced the level of flus and cold.)
I went out to a restaurant last week for the first time since that lunch just a year ago. And I wore a mask when I wasn’t eating, even though I sat outside and am now fully vaccinated.
No matter what politicians allow for any reason, please remember that even one mistake, one pull up, one indoor lunch without warning, can affect the rest of your life.