{"id":37584,"date":"2021-07-13T17:13:53","date_gmt":"2021-07-14T00:13:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=37584"},"modified":"2021-07-13T17:13:53","modified_gmt":"2021-07-14T00:13:53","slug":"covid-19-doctors-agree-that-masks-are-here-to-stay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=37584","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19: DOCTORS AGREE THAT MASKS ARE HERE TO STAY"},"content":{"rendered":"
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by\u00a0Jenny Manrique<\/a><\/span>\u00a0|\u00a0Jul 13, 2021<\/span>\u00a0|\u00a0COVID-19<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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From left to right: Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, Senior Fellow, Federation of American Scientists; Dr. Jose Perez, Chief Medical Officer, South Central Family Health Center; Dr. Ben Neuman, Chief Virologist, Global Health Research Complex at Texas A&M University<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Also available in\u00a0Spanish<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Even among people vaccinated, experts recommend the continued use of masks. CDC and WHO have issued contradictory guidelines about masking rules for those who already got their vaccines.<\/em><\/p>\n

By: Jenny Manrique<\/strong><\/p>\n

The reopening of the economy amid the pandemic has generated confusion among Americans about whether or not they should continue wearing masks. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says that vaccinated people can forgo the mask, while the World Health Organization (WHO) suggests that even those who have already received the double dose against COVID-19 should continue wearing them. There is no federal policy on this regard, and states and counties issue their own guidelines.<\/p>\n

Three medical experts speaking at a briefing hosted by Ethnic Media Services, warned that the masks are here to stay, especially given the rapid spread of the powerful Delta variant, one of the most contagious and deadly of the coronavirus strains identified so far. It is more transmissible than other variants such as P1 and Alpha, and even such diseases as smallpox.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Delta variant is a 2.0 pandemic variant,\u201d said Dr. Eric Feigl Ding, public health scientist who is currently a Senior Fellow at the Federation of American Scientists. \u201cIt is two times more transmissible than the oldest strain Wuhan 1.0, and it causes 4.9 times greater risk of hospitalization than the original strain \u2026 Basically it\u2019s faster, it\u2019s more severe and it\u2019s very vaccine evasive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Delta is the dominant variant in the UK and India where COVID infections have skyrocketed. Since even those who have received too shots and gained immunity can still transmit the virus, giving up the masks is feeding the chain of contagion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe science is really settled around masks,\u201d Ding said. \u201cStudies, including those from the CDC, show that masks help, especially if you double-mask, by reducing aerosols inhaled by somene else.<\/p>\n

The scientist emphasized that the best protection comes from the so-called premium masks most commonly used by medical personnel: K95, FFP2, N95, 3M. But using a double cloth mask considerably reduces the risks of contagion.<\/p>\n

The biggest debate now is about whether vaccinated people should continue to wear masks, and this answer depends on vaccine efficacy, which is increasingly being tested with the emergence of new variants. Doctors warn that the constant mutation of the virus will favor the appearance of other strains, because as long as herd immunity is not reached, the coronavirus will continue spreading. And herd immunity is an elusive goal in the United States where only half the population is vaccinated. In some counties vaccination rates are as low as 20%.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnywhere that the virus is growing, whether it\u2019s in a child or a young person, even if there is no disease, the virus is changing, so mutations will continue to accumulate indefinitely,\u201d said Dr. Ben Neuman, Chief virologist at the Global Health Research Complex at Texas A&M University.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more we let (the virus) mass infect and the less mitigation we take against it, it eventually will find an immunocompromised person or someone suffering from cancer, so we have another immune disorder or even worse mutations,\u201d added Newman.<\/p>\n

In the last three weeks, COVID cases have increased across the country. In South Los Angeles, only 40% of the population have received two doses of the vaccine. Dr. Jos\u00e9 P\u00e9rez, Chief Medical Officer at the South Central Family Health Center, said that to protect those unvaccinated, who are the majority, \u201ceven vaccinated people should be wearing masks, especially when they are going to be in contact with large groups.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the severity of the Delta variant, the doctor says that the demand for vaccines in LA has dropped and that while the CDC \u201ctries to make recommendations for an entire country,\u201d medicine requires seeing each patient in their uniqueness, That makes it necessary to \u201cadapt the message\u201d for different populations and risks.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of our patients suffer from anxiety and depression \u2026 and we saw a tremendous drop in the number of people seeking mental health services because doctors wore masks,\u201d P\u00e9rez said. \u201cWe implemented telehealth so they could see our faces because they felt that social cues were missed in these interactions\u2026 The message should be that the benefit of maybe missing some of that, is the fact that you prevent one, two, three, or 1000 deaths.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back to school<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a vaccine is not yet ready for children under the age of 12 \u2013 clinical trials are expected to be completed in late September and early October \u2013 there is concern about the interaction of students who may be carriers, with teachers and parents. The CDC has said that the reopening of schools depends on community transmission, without suggesting specific rules regarding vaccines, use of masks or minimum ventilation conditions. These decisions are left to the counties.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really need masks for children,\u201d said Dr. Ding. \u201cBut more than that, we need ventilation and air disinfection because we can\u2019t always open windows (in classrooms) and you can\u2019t just say that children are immune. That\u2019s not true.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe solution to an airborne transmission is air disinfection with HEPA and UVGI filters recommended by the CDC\u2026 All teachers can buy those for schools with money from the (federal) COVID relief package.\u201d<\/p>\n

The scientists agreed that there are many theories circulating on social media promoted by the anti-vaccine movement or those who do not believe in the virus, which can influence people\u2019s decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the CDC is giving credibility to those who say we don\u2019t need rules,\u201d Dr. Ding added. \u201cLocal public health leaders need to understand that until vaccinations get high enough, we have to focus on other things like masking, ventilation, disinfection, contact tracing, and mass testing wherever there are hotspots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Perez thinks that \u201cevery single American is hearing all these different voices, and they are going to choose one that fits them \u2026 Hopefully the CDC will be a little more aggressive because although there are many people who might not like to hear the idea, I think masks are here to stay,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Jenny Manrique\u00a0|\u00a0Jul 13, 2021\u00a0|\u00a0COVID-19 From left...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37584"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37585,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37584\/revisions\/37585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}