Forks Up, Masks Up
As the pandemic continues to affect our lives, it can sometimes be frustrating to keep adhering to CDC guidelines. However, in order to prevent COVID-19 variants from progressing and causing lockdown procedures, it’s important to get vaccinated and mask up whenever you are in a public space, including all across campus. This way, we can show we care about the safety and wellbeing of our fellow Sun Devils and make sure we aren’t contributing to a rise in cases. If you’re still on the fence, here are some facts about mask-wearing that may sway you.
- Masks protect you from infection. Now that you’re back in the lecture halls, it’s important to protect yourself from others’ respiratory droplets that might be transmitted as you discuss last night’s homework. Even though you may be vaccinated, new variants of COVID-19 still put you at risk of catching the virus, although vaccination usually prevents severe symptoms from developing.
- Masks protect others from infection. If you take steps to protect yourself, you help protect others by proxy. Since you are less likely to become infected, you then won’t be spreading the virus in the event that others are not wearing a mask.
- Masks actively prevent and defend against infection. There’s nothing worse than getting to class after a long walk in the sun with your mask acting as your own personal humidifier. But, it turns out that “high levels of humidity may help limit the spread of a virus to the lungs. Humidity supports a defense mechanism that removes mucus from the lungs—along with potentially harmful particles, such as viruses, within the mucus,” according to the National Institute of Healthy, a government organization.
- There are no negative effects. You may have some maskne to deal with, but wearing a mask creates no negative effects on your respiratory or immune system. Although masks can make it uncomfortable to breathe, carbon dioxide still easily filters through the material and your immune system won’t weaken or shut down because you are less exposed to germs.
