Advocating for COVID safety this evening
Tonight at 7 p.m., the Dane County Board will consider Resolution 157, which urges Public Health Madison & Dane County (PHMDC) to rescind the emergency mask order that is currently in place. I will be speaking out in opposition to this resolution.
The resolution asserts that the scientific basis of the mask order is unknown. In fact, there is a lot of scientific evidence indicating that masks decrease COVID transmission. For those interested in reading more, I’ve included a few related links at the bottom of this post.
The resolution further insinuates that PHMDC has categorically failed to consider community input, and it specifically calls out schools as one of the community groups that have not had adequate opportunity to weigh in on the order. This is confusing because school staff, administrators, and Boards of Education have consistently called upon other community leaders to do everything we can to manage COVID spread so that schools can remain open. The mask order reflects the County’s obligation to do its part.
If you wish to join me at tonight’s meeting, you may register here.
References
An evidence review of face masks against COVID-19. (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, January 2021.)
Our review of the literature offers evidence in favor of widespread mask use as source control to reduce community transmission… The available evidence suggests that near-universal adoption of nonmedical masks when out in public, in combination with complementary public health measures, could successfully reduce … community spread if such measures are sustained.
A rapid systematic review of the efficacy of face masks and respirators against coronaviruses and other respiratory transmissible viruses. (International Journal of Nursing Studies, August 2020.)
The study suggests that community mask use by well people could be beneficial, particularly for COVID-19, where transmission may be pre-symptomatic. The studies of masks as source control also suggest a benefit, and may be important during the COVID-19 pandemic in universal community face mask use as well as in health care settings.
Modeling COVID-19 scenarios for the United States. (Nature Medicine, October 2020.)
We find that achieving universal mask use (95% mask use in public) could be sufficient to ameliorate the worst effects of epidemic resurgences in many states. Universal mask use could save an additional 129,574 (85,284–170,867) lives from September 22, 2020 through the end of February 2021, or an additional 95,814 (60,731–133,077) lives assuming a lesser adoption of mask wearing (85%), when compared to the reference scenario.