A few weeks ago, my family decided to do something outside the house together for once. Picking a wide, outdoor venue to minimize the risk of contracting COVID-19, we wore our masks and drove to our destination— a cute little café called “Mozart’s Coffee Roasters” in Austin, TX. However, it was only when we got there that I sat up in my seat and stared. I could not differentiate this certain evening from the first time I had visited the café, which was pre-COVID, last year. The only slight difference was a few face masks on select families. Shocked, we did not leave our car and drove back home instead.

I was appalled. Am I just too careful, or was the café advertised as COVID-19-repellant? I concluded that neither was the case; rather, this lack of precaution came down to a lack of knowledge (or concern) about the importance of precautionary measures against COVID-19. 

The two biggest, substantial actions to upkeep are also the simplest: wearing masks, and social distancing. Why are these important? Big-picture: we want to continue to flatten the curve. This means reducing coronavirus transmissions so that medical facilities can handle it, enabling proper care for those contracted with COVID-19 as opposed to the drastic overwhelming of healthcare systems that we are seeing currently. 

More specifically, mask-wearing and social distancing reduce coronavirus spread by preventing the transmission of droplets or aerosols expelled while talking, breathing, coughing, or sneezing to others. Since these droplets originate from mucous or saliva from the respiratory tract, they may contain the virus particles, which can then infect another individual upon landing on surfaces such as the eyes, nose, and mouth (i.e. the “T-zone”).

Face masks

Face masks have been shown to block droplets of as small as 20 micrometers that are produced while talking [1]. Moreover, mandating face masks in 15 US states was found to significantly decrease COVID-19 cases by up to 2% per state as compared to their pre-mandate condition within as little as three weeks [2]. Lastly, a cross-cultural comparison of 198 countries revealed that countries who enforced masks within one month of their first case showed an almost 100-fold reduction in COVID-19 mortality rates within three months, as compared to countries who did not [3]. 

Social distancing 

The cruciality of social distancing is similarly supported by robust evidence. Mathematical models indicate that if 25% of the population social distances for three months, the number of coronavirus cases could be reduced by up to 80% compared to if no social distancing occurred [4]. Moreover, research has found that social distancing measures were associated with a significant decline in coronavirus cases across several countries within six months [5]. 

To conclude: Students at Rice are knowledgeable, cautious, and caring. More than that, however, they are influential. As the phrase “with great power comes great responsibility” highlights, mindfulness about the importance of masks and social-distancing can maximize our potential to slow the spread in our community. 



References

  1. Laser Light-Scattering Experiment Showing Speech-Generated Droplets. (00:42); Editors, T.; J. H. Beigel and Others; E. E. Walsh and Others. Visualizing Speech-Generated Oral Fluid Droplets with Laser Light Scattering: NEJM. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2007800 (accessed Oct 28, 2020). 

  2. Wei Lyu and George L. Wehby. Community Use Of Face Masks And COVID-19: Evidence From A Natural Experiment Of State Mandates In The US. https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00818 (accessed Oct 28, 2020). 

  3. (PDF) Association of country-wide coronavirus mortality with demographics, testing, lockdowns, and public wearing of masks (Update June 15, 2020). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342198360_Association_of_country-wide_coronavirus_mortality_with_demographics_testing_lockdowns_and_public_wearing_of_masks_Update_June_15_2020 (accessed Oct 28, 2020). 

  4. T;, M. L. L. Evaluating the Effectiveness of Social Distancing Interventions to Delay or Flatten the Epidemic Curve of Coronavirus Disease. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32343222/ (accessed Oct 28, 2020). 

  5. Thu, T. P. B.; Ngoc, P. N. H.; Hai, N. M.; Tuan, L. A. Effect of the social distancing measures on the spread of COVID-19 in 10 highly infected countries. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7307990/ (accessed Oct 28, 2020). 


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