Army Bob: Now it’s agreed that we should wear masks

In a comment about my last column, a reader stated we do not know protective masks work. He went on to say we do not know what is going on with the COVID-19 virus.

He is correct to an extent; we do know masks help, we just do not know by what percent. In answering his post, it just got too long and involved, so I made it into a column.

He is correct that we just do not know what we do not know. The death rate current and projected is in question, but it is from less than 1% up to 14%, depending on location, age and overall health and how honest the reports are. It is a lower rate in nations like China and South Korea that use masks, than it is Italy, France or Spain that do not.

Wearing a mask will reduce your chances of getting the COVID-19 virus; by how much we do not know, and if you have it and do not know it, protective masks will reduce your chances of spreading it. You are correct that cotton, homemade protective masks are not 100% effective, not even close, but I’ll take reducing the odds by any percent. The loss of even 0.5% of the American population would be over 1,500,000 dead, more than in all our wars combined. Some models predict that rate.

Remember for those under age 40, the Case Fatality Rate (CFR) is 0.2%, above 80 it goes up to over 14%. Young or old, we owe it to each other to be safe. Below is data attesting to the CFR by age. Please remember this is a death rate and we still just do not know what the long-term effects of the COVID-19 virus is for those who are infected and recover of all ages.

Ages 80+ = 14.8%; 70 to 79 = 8.0%; 60 to 69 = 3.6%; 50 to 59 = 1.3%; 40 to 49 = 0.4%; Below 40 = 0.2%.

As with all data concerning the COVID-19 virus, the numbers will change and change rapidly. We are in the early stages of this pandemic; it sure seems like it has been forever, but the first American case was confirmed on Jan. 21, and we as a nation have been shut down to some extent since mid-March.

The Spanish Flu pandemic lasted in the United States for almost two years. In October 1918 alone, 200,000 Americans died, 675,000 total. Normed for our current population, that would be 2,362,500 deaths. Improvements in medicine, hygiene and education will ensure we do not get anywhere near those numbers, but they should scare us enough to take this pandemic seriously.

The CDC is now saying that home-made cloth masks help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Blessed are the converted; why it took so long will be debated in hindsight for decades to come, but better late than never. Ask yourself if cloth masks do not work, why do more than two billion people in Asia use them? Why have they been used in Asia for over a century?

To be perfectly honest, I wish the individual states would take more of a hands-on approach; sadly it is safer for them to sit back and let the federal government handle things. Governors can play the blame game, blaming the feds for all that is perceived as wrong in hindsight.

New York is not North Dakota, Michigan is not Arizona, the governors and State Departments of Health should be the ones dictating what we do and how we do it. Climate, diet, population density, customs and courtesies, topography, housing, are different from state to state and region to region. We are just too diverse a nation to have a one size fits all approach.

The quicker we “bend the curve,” the quicker we start reducing the rate of infection, the sooner our lives will get back to normal. Using a face mask will help; not wearing a mask is not macho or brave, it is dumb, and displays a monumental ignorance and selfishness.

We all want to get back to normal, whatever that will be in post pandemic America.