TO MASK OR NOT TO MASK? By Kari Kingsley, MSN, CRNP
COVID-19 is changing the way we live our lives from the ground up. The new (and sometimes incorrect) recommendations circulating can leave us in a tailspin. Most people get the basics. Wash your hands. No, really, wash your hands. Sing “Happy Birthday” … count to twenty… do whatever you have to do to make sure your hands get the just came off a fishing charter, changed a baby diaper, and then cut raw chicken deep scrubbing they deserve. Or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Don’t touch your face. Ok, louder, for those of you in the back. DON’T TOUCH YOUR FACE. Easier said than done. The average person touches their face up to 3000 times a day. That’s a little over 2-3 times a minute. Avoid sick people. Like the plague. If you get sick, don’t panic. Get a COVID-19 test if you meet the requirements (fever, cough, shortness of breath, you get the gist). Then avoid people like the plague. Stay home from work, school, and for
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the love of all things healthy, stay out of Walmart. Practice good manners and cover that cough. Use proper etiquette by coughing into your elbow. Maintain social distancing measures, especially in areas of potential community-based transmission. While this remedial information may seem like COVID 101, there is still a lot of confusion circulating on when to mask and when not to mask. Recommendations seem to change rapidly and casual grocery store people watching reveals we may not all be acting as we should. At the present time, the Center for Disease Control has recommended using simple cloth face coverings to slow the spread of the COVID-19 and prevent asymptomatic carriers from transmitting the virus. What are the appropriate recommendations for when and where to wear a mask? We asked a local Infectious Disease Specialist, Ali Hassoun, MD, FACP, AAHIVS, FIDSA, to weigh in.
