Mask Mandates in the United States During the COVID-19 Pandemic

[1Matthew]

Mask Mandates in the United States During the COVID-19 Pandemic

It is without a doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic was one of the worst things to happen in recent United States history. First, let's look at some of the facts and statistics regarding the 2020 Covid pandemic. According to the CDC, in the United States alone there have been more than 100 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, this doesn’t include the unconfirmed cases, because many people refused to get tested. There were more than 1 million confirmed deaths due to COVID-19 also according to the CDC. This shows that the COVID pandemic could’ve been handled way better than it was. 

But who is really at fault for the mass breakout of COVID in the United States and what did our elected officials do to prevent the spread? The CDC were the ones to recommend guidelines and mandates for COVID, however governors, mayors, and public health officials were the ones that made them mandatory. Dr. Anthony Fauci, as part of the white house coronavirus task force, advocated for mask use as a critical public health measure. However many Americans were outraged to find out there were mask mandates set in place, and they questioned Dr. Fauci’s authority and reliability. One of the biggest arguments against the mask mandates was that some people struggled to breathe with masks on and stated that masks didn’t even work. This however was proven to be false, studies by John Hopkins University showed that the use of masks in public spaces and poorly ventilated space, helped to prevent the spread.

 

Question: If you had the power to make any law to help stop the spread of COVID, what would you put in place?

 

Question: Do you believe that masks were a key source to preventing the spread of COVID-19?

 

Question: Was Dr. Fauci right for setting mask mandates?

Sources

-https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9114791/ 

-https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2021.01072 

-https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/coronavirus-face-masks-what-you-need-to-know 

[1Frannie]

I am unsure if mask were a key part in helping stop Covid 19 from spreading around the globe, as some researchers said they did not help at all. I think maybe in some cases they might have, but others not. Dr. Fauci set mandates for people to wear masks, if the mask completely worked it was an amazing idea, but we don't know that they did. 

[1Chrissy]

I don't think mask per say in a whole helped prevent covid, but the quarantine. If you aren't around the people who have covid, you have a less of a chance to get it. Masks only stopped people from coughing and spitting their nasty bacteria around.

[1Josie]

I don't think that masks helped as much as people say they did. Lots of people got COVID-19 even if they didn't die from it. I also don't think that Dr. Fauci helped with very much. The vaccines were sketchy and the vaccines still made people sick and had negative effects.

[6kaden]

The U.S. government will make oxygen and PPE available; enhance testing; provide treatments; strengthen global health systems to fight COVID-19; protect health workers from COVID-19 and essential health services from COVID-19 disruptions; improve detection, monitoring and mitigation of new COVID-19 variants; and.During a conversation with The Washington Post earlier this month, Fauci, the former chief medical adviser to the White House during the pandemic, was asked about the different pandemic protocols he followed over the past summer including how often he wore a face mask in certain settings."Since the level of SARS-CoV-2 virus was low in the community this summer, I did not mask, and I have eaten indoors on occasion," Fauci told The Washington Post. "However, I preferred eating outdoors when possible. This could change if cases markedly increase for the remainder of the summer."

[5 Madden]

1.) I would make it mandatory to be tested for any diseases and sicknesses when leaving and entering the country, to either reduce or control the sicknesses. If someone were to test positive for any disease or illness, they would be treated for however long was necessary.

2.) I definetly do think that masks did help control it but I also think that social distancing and less contact with people also helped. There was also many people that didn't wear masks or not as often so I think that made COVID-19 stick around longer than it should have.

[6Cole]

I don't think that masks actually work becuase they are used to stop your own personal germs from getting on other people and if you are in public with covid then you were supposed to be at home. Also Dr. Fauci was proven that he was wrong with a lot of what he was doing so I think that the mask mandates were a bad idea. 

[6AJ]

People still died and those people were wearing mask and look a lot of them died. so i don't think that the mask did anything 

[6AJ]

I don't really think that mask did much for covid at all. People still got it if they were or weren't wearing a mask.

[1Jacob]

I would of made people get the vacine, I feel if everyone got the vacine it would be perfectly fine and we wouldn't of needed to wear masks. I think they were a good sorce to stop the spread of covid 19 virus. I feel that people should of wore then unless they had the vaccine

[6Julia]

I think masks were very important to wear and that Dr. Fauci was right to set the mask mandate because if he hadn't done that maybe those deaths would have been doubled. Masks helped a lot of people not get contaminated by the virus and it helped the spreading of the virus.