Lives lost to Covid now exceed the lives lost in battle during the Civil War and both World Wars.
Most people agree on mask-wearing to slow the spread, so while there may be other ways to do it, this is one where we agree much more than we don’t.
RTI International survey findings from a large, diverse sampling of Americans.
It’s how I respect healthcare workers already struggling under the weight of other people’s choices
I don’t want people to die alone
Dr. Joseph Varon comforts a patient in the COVID-19 intensive care unit on Thanksgiving at the United Memorial Medical Center in Houston. (Go Nakamura/Getty)
It’s a small way to help end the pandemic, and small ways matter because just 5% to 10% of cases drive 80% of cases in the next generation.
The evidence on masking, though thin at first, has become incredibly compelling such that I cannot argue against it without denying reality. I believe the truth matters.
I respect the sacrifices made by essential workers who cannot stay home and want to keep them safe.
I’m high risk and if I got sick, I could cost my partner his job and could wrack up massive medical bill debt while causing a care delay to someone with a non-Covid related condition.
We don’t know the long-term consequences, and I don’t want to live with the regret of knowing I could have easily protected my family, but I didn’t. A study found 78 out of 100 people who had recovered from COVID-19 had abnormal findings on cardiovascular MRI (median of 71 days after diagnosis) and 36 of those reported shortness of breath and unusual fatigue, so they didn’t always feel a difference that would have told them Covid affected their hearts.
My face gets cold in the winter, so it’s a nice two for one.
Without humans, there is no pandemic, so I’m doing my part to not be the human part of the equation.
It’s a constitutionally licit power of the state and I believe in the constitution. I trust that the founding fathers knew what they were doing because they lived through devastating outbreaks, hence their leaving broad powers to protect public health.