Adobe Stock
Face mask
Closeup of young professional doctor putting medical mask on face as protection against contagious diseases. Confident man wearing protective face mask. Preventive measures COVID-19, nCov-19, SARS
With Texans now required to wear face masks in any public space, we spoke with Tarrant County Judge B. Glen Whitley and Dr. Susan Bailey, a Fort Worth-based physician and president of the American Medical Association, about why wearing a mask is such a big deal.
Why now?
Governor Greg Abbott’s mask order applies to any county in Texas that has more than 20 positive cases of COVID-19. It does provide some exemptions for children under 10, people with a medical condition or disability, eating or drinking while seated at a restaurant, and outdoor exercise while observing social distancing. Folks not wearing a mask can be fined up to $250.
With spikes in cases and hospitalizations leading up to the July 4 weekend, Whitley says masks are crucial to keep cases from increasing even further. He says that mask orders are a “last-ditch effort” to prevent business closures again.
“My biggest concern is to have to either see the governor further restrict and close down businesses again or for it be left to us,” he says. “I felt that masks were an inconvenience, but they were not something that was going to cause someone to lose their jobs or shut down their business.”
Over the last few months, masks recommendations have changed. From the CDC initially saying that masks were not necessary to Abbott now enforcing state-wide masking, some people are lost in the messaging.
“I think it’s important to understand that public health officials pay close attention to evolving science, and if there's enough science and data to change your recommendation about something, you change it,” Bailey says. “That's not a sign of being wishy-washy. That's a sign of good science.”
How effective are masks?
Whitley points to real-life situations to prove the efficacy of masks.
“There was an example of where two hairdressers both had COVID-19,” he says. “They were wearing masks as well as their customers. They saw over 140 different customers, and nobody else came down with the virus.”
Whitley also referenced instances of parties and family gatherings where no one wore a mask and “super-spreaders” infected large numbers of guests.
Different types of masks provide varying levels of protection, but Bailey says even homemade cloth masks can be extremely effective in preventing the transmission of the virus.
“Even though viruses themselves are incredibly tiny, they don't fly around by themselves and get inhaled,” she says. “Viruses are carried on airborne droplets and tiny mucus particles, and cloth is very effective at filtering that out.”
What about anti-mask claims?
Bailey says there’s no legitimacy to the most frequent health-related arguments against wearing a mask. She says claims that masks cause carbon dioxide poisoning or hypoxia from oxygen deprivation are incorrect.
“There is no legitimacy to [the arguments] at all,” she says. “First of all, surgeons, nurses, and other health care personnel wear masks for hours on end working hard. There has never been a case reported of oxygen deprivation or carbon dioxide poisoning in someone who wears a mask for a long period of time. We know that masks are effective, and there's no scientific reason why someone shouldn't wear a mask.”
Others say they have the freedom not to wear a mask.
“People will say, ‘Well, I have a right not to wear a mask,’” Whitley says. “But that doesn't make it right. It's just kind of [like] cutting off your nose to spite your face.”
How long until we see if mask orders work?
With hospitals reaching capacity and back-to-school approaching, Texas needs to turn things around quickly but may have to wait a few weeks to see the results of the order.
“It may take some time because, I think, because COVID-19 is a disease that takes a while to manifest itself and for the most severe symptoms to show up,” Bailey says. “Typically, hospitalization and death rates lag behind at least a couple of weeks from the official onset. We may not see the slowing down of new cases, our hospitalizations, and death rate until well into July. It's going to require a lot of patience.”
Still, it remains important to give masks time to do their job, she says.
“We really need to use all the tools in our toolbox, and we don't have that many,” Bailey says. “Wearing a mask is probably one of the most important things that you can do. We have to do them all together — social distancing, wearing a mask, and keeping your hands clean.”
