Who’s In Charge? Unmasking The Truth In Preventing Covid-19?

In times of crises, like the pandemic, we look for leadership.  Expert, competent, accurate information is what we seek to make good decisions in order to protect ourselves, our families, our businesses and our neighbors. Lacking that informed leadership - since nature abhors a vacuum - people will reach their own conclusions about what's best for them. Which leads me to asking -What about wearing protective masks?  Should we? Should we not?  Who knows?

Is it Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine? ".DeWine gave into pressure from what can generously be described as a small sample size of the public that felt “offended” by a requirement to wear masks in public....The governor on Tuesday reversed his decision from 24 hours prior to require masks as part of the reopening of Ohio and, against the advice of public health experts, made masks optional for customers going forward."

Is it Democrat Governor Ralph Northam of Virginia? "Gov. Ralph Northam announced Tuesday that the state will require anyone over the age of 10 to wear a face mask while inside a public building or business establishment to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19."

Well then is it the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)? " After months of maintaining that healthy people didn’t need to wear masks in public to prevent the coronavirus, the country’s top public health officials reversed their position last week, recommending that everyone wear a face mask in public places where social distancing is difficult....It’s a stark change from the early weeks of the outbreak, when the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said only two groups of people needed to wear them: people who were showing symptoms and people who were taking care of someone who was sick."

What about the WHO? "The World Health organization is recommending healthy people, including those who don’t exhibit COVID-19 symptoms, only wear masks when taking care of someone infected with the contagion, a sharp contrast from the advice given by American public health officials who recommend everyone wear a mask in public...“If you do not have any repository symptoms such as fever, cough or runny nose, you do not need to wear a mask,” Dr. April Baller, a public health specialist for the WHO."

Aha!! The Final Authority has got to be Dr. Anthony Fauci!  "Dr. Anthony Fauci said in an interview on Wednesday that he believes that wearing a mask during the coronavirus pandemic is a sign of respect to others.(not mandatory effective protective behavior??) He added that while masks aren't 100% effective, he believes it's the "kind of thing you should be doing" during the pandemic."

Clear as mud.

Ok, OK. There are conflicting opinions, but what about the local authorities? What are they saying?  They say about 35% of Yakima County residents wear masks but that we need a number closer to 80% in order to reduce the spread and be able to reach numbers that will allow the County to mover into reopening level TWO.