Before the COVID.19 pandemic began, did you ever wonderwhy cancer patients in hospitals were given masks to wear by staff? Simple reason: To prevent cancer patients from getting infections from others while these most vulnerable undergo immune-compromising cancer treatments. Having battled cancer five times, I can testify to this.
Well, now, we have a situation in which a changing virus is looking to ravage general humanity and feed upon us all by constantly changing its ability to infect faster, to infect more virulently, and to infect with increasing resistance.
Those familiar with what we teachers of biology call the Scientific Method (I taught secondary biology for many years) realize that as viruses evolve new approaches and new revisions to battling them must be employed.
The CDC keeps revising its recommendations as to how to prevent the spread of COVID-19 as NEW knowledge emerges that informs doctors/scientists as to HOW this new, dangerous virus is evolving and behaving…not in an attempt to “control” the population with a political bent as some news channels would have you believe falsely.
For instance, recent months have given us the new knowledge that the hairs in our nostrils can harbor a high variant viral load (extreme amounts of this virus) even if we are fully vaccinated.
Knowing this means that, even if we are fully vaccinated, we can spread the virus to others who are not vaccinated and/or ineligible for vaccination at present…namely, to our children between the ages of birth through age 12…all those vulnerable little ones who can catch the virus from even vaccinated adults (newly discovered knowledge).
It is no longer true that children appear immune to COVID.19. At least 400 children in the United States have died from COVID.19since the pandemic began and children are not supposed to die.
Next time you have to choose whether to put on a mask or not think about those whom you might infect if you don’t wear a mask: your children, your grandchildren, your elderly grandparents, etc.
Next time you have to choose whether to put on a mask or not, think about yourself and why cancer patients are given masks in hospitals: to protect themselves from others.
Whether you choose to wear a mask to protect your own life or to protect the lives of the innocents who are most vulnerable at present, especially our children, please choose to wear a mask to give our little ones a fighting chance at surviving this pandemic.
Kathy Rittel
East Williston
