Should Americans Wear Masks for COVID-19? | The Institute for Creation Research

Should Americans Wear Masks for COVID-19?
Watching COVID-19 news reporting on South Koreans and Americans shows one stark difference: South Koreans are wearing some kind of face mask but Americans are not. Should Americans be wearing a face mask? The CDC is reconsidering the issue, and a report on several studies on this topic was just published today in the British science journal Nature.1 Readers of ICR news should be aware of these, because the studies could influence their decisions if they want to voluntarily wear a mask outside their homes.

The report could not give a definitive answer because it is remarkably hard to gather good quality data. The studies take time to complete, and there are disagreements in the scientific community over critical details. Important questions that need to be answered are: Can the virus be spread through the air? If so, how far can the virus particles travel? How long do virus particles remain infectious after leaving an infected person? How many virus particles must contaminate a non-infected person to be considered a viable infectious dose? The dilemma is that to get a definitive answer will take time—and that time lag could result in additional, possibly preventable, infections.

Much of the discussion to make a public recommendation rests on a key distinction described in the report:

When public health officials say there isn't sufficient evidence to say that COVID-19 is airborne, they specifically mean transported in virus-laden aerosols smaller than 5 micrometres in diameter. Compared with droplets, which are heftier and thought to travel only short distances after someone coughs or sneezes before falling to the floor or onto other surfaces, aerosols can linger in the air for longer and travel further.

The report mentioned several studies which seemed to show definite evidence that virus particles are aerosolized and could linger in the air. This means that they could infect a person farther away than the six-foot social-distancing guideline. At least one other study in the report had equivocal findings.

Given these realities, should Americans be advised to wear masks? The report notes,

The Czech Republic and Slovakia, however, have made it mandatory for people to wear masks outside the home. Tang [virologist Julian Tang at the University of Leicester, UK] thinks those countries have taken the right approach. “They are following the southeast Asia approach. If everyone can mask, it is double, two-way protection,” he says.

Two other comments in the report are worth taking into consideration as citizens and the CDC evaluate the benefit of wearing a face mask:

But experts that work on airborne respiratory illnesses and aerosols say that gathering unequivocal evidence for airborne transmission could take years and cost lives. We shouldn’t “let perfect be the enemy of convincing”, says Michael Osterholm, an infectious-disease epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

And,

“In the mind of scientists working on this, there’s absolutely no doubt that the virus spreads in the air,” says aerosol scientist Lidia Morawska at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. “This is a no-brainer.”

South Koreans began wearing face masks immediately upon national exposure to the virus that causes COVID-19. How much of their successful containment efforts can be attributed to that action alone is unknown. Perhaps if the CDC recommended that Americans start wearing masks, then we could collect epidemiological data from large U.S. cities that could be compared to New York City where people were not wearing masks. When people ask me personally if I wear a mask, I’m in the same camp as Lidia Morawska. My answer is “Yes.”

References
1. Lewis, D. 2020. Is the coronavirus airborne? Experts can’t agree. Posted on nature.com April 2, 2020, accessed April 2, 2020. doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-00974-w

*Randy Guliuzza is ICR’s National Representative. He earned his Doctor of Medicine from the University of Minnesota, his Master of Public Health from Harvard University, and served in the U.S. Air Force as 28th Bomb Wing Flight Surgeon and Chief of Aerospace Medicine. Dr. Guliuzza is also a registered Professional Engineer.
The Latest
NEWS
The Origin of Eukaryotes
Eukaryotes are multicellular organisms that contain diverse differentiated cell types. Within almost every cell there are subcellular compartments called...

CREATION PODCAST
Water vs. Wind: The Controversial Coconino | The Creation Podcast:...
Welcome to the sixth episode in a series called “The Failures of Old Earth Creationism.” Many Christians attempt to fit old...

NEWS
Fossil Fish Finally Filmed
The bizarre lobe-finned coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae) “that flourished some 350 million years ago”1 continues to be a thorn...

NEWS
The Mosasaur: A Giant Sea Dragon
Mosasaurs (order Squamata) were massive marine lizards that were common in the pre-Flood oceans. Therefore, it is not surprising that their fossils...

DAYS OF PRAISE DEVOTIONALS
Summer 2025
...

NEWS
Was Life Detected on a Distant Planet?
There was celebration, albeit briefly, for the discovery of potential life on a planet called K2-18b, which is 124 lightyears away from Earth. The...

NEWS
Ichthyosaur Graveyard Explained by the Flood
Ichthyosaurs are marine reptiles that occur globally in the same rock layers as dinosaurs. Specimens with babies support the idea that they gave live...

CREATION PODCAST
What Do We Do With Geology's Unconforming Features? | The Creation...
Welcome to the fifth episode in a series called “The Failures of Old Earth Creationism.” Many Christians attempt to fit old...

NEWS
Freshwater Fish Fossil in Australia
Yet another fish fossil has been discovered. This one was found in the Australian desert and was dated by evolutionists to be “15 million years...

NEWS
May 2025 ICR Wallpaper
"Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." (Romans...