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Masks and Isolation in the 2020 Pandemic English Comp II
English Composition II (ENG123)
Southern New Hampshire University
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Karina Veirs Dr. Pisano ENG-123-Q1907 English Composition II 20EW October 3, 2020 Masks and Isolation in the 2020 Pandemic
The year 2020 will be known to many as the year of “Corona”. The pandemic year that brought the world to a halt. The year that the government infringed on our rights? The year the media brought about mass panic and fear. Fear of Covid-19. Why, you may ask: The CDC is stating isolation of our venerable adults. Mandatory mask mandates are being implemented in multiple cities and towns, while others do not. Still, the number of infected people continue to rise in the US. This poses the questions; is placing people in isolation and the use of masks really making a difference? Is the United States needing a mandatory mask law? Should we, the people, continue to let the government decide to keep the nursing homes and assisted living centers closed to the resident’s families? The use of masks outside of the home (in public) can have a significant positive outcome for the American people as a whole if worn correctly. Not only in physical health, but also in mental health. It can help open our nursing homes back up and should decline the incidence of failure to thrive in nursing home residents and depression in the American people.
Let us first review the use of masks. Masks, if worn correctly, can prevent the spread of illness. This includes the spread of COVID-19. Now, there are people who claim that the virus can still enter through a masks. They are not wrong. The simple masks i. homemade face coverings, surgical masks, are not designed to keep a virus out. They are designed to keep one in. In studies, it has been shown that the use of face coverings, either homemade or medical grade
simple masks, have reduced the transmission of viruses. Many used a Randomized Control Trials (RCT). What this entails is as follows: Tests were done in a laboratory with viruses and other tests were done in a household setting with participating families. Since the tests subjects outside of the lab were not as regulated as that within the lab is what deems the trial a RCT. In these trials it was shown that with proper hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette, the transmission of viruses or other contagious illnesses were reduced, though not by a significant number. The reason for this is due to the non-adherence to the face masks inside the homes at all times. One thing that did show to help was handwashing. This coupled with the use of a masks properly worn did reduce the transmission rate. How do you properly wear a mask? One must wear the mask so that it covers the nose, mouth, and securely fits under the chin. There is also the hand hygiene that needs to be considered. Before you touch your mask, you should wash your hands with soap and warm water for at least twenty seconds. Dry hands with clean paper towels or a clean hand towel. Turn the faucet off with another clean, dry paper towel or clean hand towel. Then you may place your mask on. When you take your mask off, do not touch the inside of the masks until you have washed your hands. If your masks are homemade and are washable, it is good to wash your mask every other day to once a week at the least. If the mask becomes visibly soiled, it is best to wash it as soon as possible. Wearing your mask properly while using good hand hygiene, your risk for transmitting/receiving the virus is greatly reduced. Wearing your mask outside of your home is prudent. As spoke about above, wearing your mask properly and using proper hand hygiene will reduce the risk of transmission. To go further into this, in reducing the risk of transmission, you will also be reducing the number of admissions to an already overworked hospital. Healthcare workers are working on the front lines.
attempting to FaceTime. They may not recognize their loved one from outside a window, or from a car that is over six feet away. A huge number of these residents then fall into depression, which in turn leads to failure to thrive. Jennifer Abassi wrote in her article for JAMA , “For many residents, communal dining and daily visits from family members or paid caregivers had been triggers to eat. Without those familiar faces and routines, some residents refused food and lost weight. ‘failure to thrive has become rampant’ in nursing homes during the COVID- lockdown....” (620) With the nursing homes still in a lockdown type setting, physicians are turning to more medications to help these residents combat the depression and anxiety. Unfortunately, these medications have serious side effects. Medication is not the answer. In using masks and proper hand hygiene, nursing home should be allowed to have one visitor for each resident. Also, with the use of masks from the staff, and social distancing, residents should be able to start having communal dining again. This should decrease depression and anxiety. Help to reverse their failure to thrive. Family should be allowed back into the nursing homes. In adhering to the proper wearing of face masks and proper hand hygiene, we can make a difference. We should start with our nursing homes. Open them back up to the families. In doing so and continuing the face mask practice, we can start opening up more and more areas of our country again. Also, with keeping in compliance of face masks and hand hygiene, it can help reduce the amount of over admissions to the hospitals. This in turn will help our health care workers. Decrease the amount of isolation they have to endure, which will decrease the development of depression and anxiety. Face masks and hand hygiene are vital to the combating of COVID-19. It is no longer ok to think only of ourselves. It is time to look at the whole of America. “We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men;
and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.”
— Herman Melville
Works Cited
Wong, Jessica Y; Xiao, Jingyi. “Nonpharmaceutical Measures for Pandemic Influenza in Nonhealthcare Settings-Personal Protective and Environmental Measures” Emerging In- fectious Diseases Vol 26, No. 5, May 2020 pp. 967-75 cdc/eid
Jenkins, Christine; Sunjaya, Anthony Paulo. “Rationale for universal face masks in public
against Covid-19” Official Journal of the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology. Vol 25 2020 pp. 678-
Masks and Isolation in the 2020 Pandemic English Comp II
Course: English Composition II (ENG123)
University: Southern New Hampshire University
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