Guest Column: Science and politics
BY DR. JOSHUA POTTER
I’ve seen a lot of posts on Facebook about how wearing masks is somehow a liberal agenda or how state/city governments mandating the same is an overreach of power.
This is heartbreaking on both professional and personal levels.
As I’m talking to friends and family members in the medical community who work in states with rising numbers of overall cases, hospitalizations, and deaths from COVID-19, they are telling stories so similar to what we faced here in New York in March through May of this year. Especially in Texas, my colleagues (some of whom are family) are seeing a surge of cases, and I very much fear that their systems will be strained to bursting soon, as ours were, and I fear for their safety and all of those I love back home.
Would stricter mask protocols have prevented this? Will they help now? The data on masks in respiratory pandemics like this one are not iron-clad, if what you are looking for in terms of data are double-blinded, placebo-controlled studies. But multiple retrospective studies as well as solid scientific explorations, strongly indicate that masks and social distancing will help decrease transmission. And every case prevented is, in my opinion, worth the mild discomfort of wearing a mask.
Will it stop all cases? No. Will it keep transmission on surfaces down? No. But is it a benign intervention that will make a difference?
With every fiber of my being, I believe the answer to this is a resounding “yes.”
On a personal level, I am also heartbroken. Not just because I fear for my loved ones in the states and areas facing rising numbers, but also because (and I know this is an “emotional” response as opposed to a logical one), every social media post decrying this all as a liberal attempt to take away rights feels like a slap in the face.
As if I am being personally called a liar.
As if I am being told that the experiences I shared here and privately, of the exhausting devastation that we faced when we were overrun with cases in our local hospitals, were trivial.
As if the conversations I had with family members over the phone as we desperately cared for their loved ones in isolation, without their loved ones at their side, were meaningless.
I honestly don’t understand the issue. If there is a chance, even a small one, that doing something as simple as wearing a mask could save someone else’s life, how is that not worth even the attempt?
Are masks uncomfortable? Often, yes. Do they harm you? I have worn one daily for more than three months, and have not been harmed in the least beyond the minor discomfort. There is no science or evidence to show that they are harmful.
Last, so many people I see posting the bitter responses and sharing posts laughing about masks being a hoax were the same people who spent most of my life modeling Christian beliefs and behaviors. To see them now balking at such a simple effort to help other people, even the chance of helping other people, is confusing in the extreme.
The Christ taught to love others as yourself. His followers taught to avoid anything that might even cause your brothers or sisters to stumble. Try as I might, I don’t see these concepts reflected in the posts I’m seeing from so many people, and it makes me wonder about so, so much.
I love you all. Please take care of yourselves, and each other. As far as COVID-19 is concerned, there is no white or black, no Democrat or Republican, no Northerner or Southerner, only those who have the virus, and those who don’t. Let’s do what we can to heal the former and protect the latter.
Please.
Dr. Potter is a physician at the Shelter Island Medical Center. This essay was posted by Dr. Potter on his Facebook page, and reflects his personal views, and not necessarily those of his employer.
