Why I’m wearing a mask

For the past couple of weeks, I have worn a cloth mask whenever I left the house. I'm not sure how much the mask is protecting me from contracting COVID-19, but I've read enough to convince me that we should wear masks and encourage our friends to do so as well.

Here are the main reasons to wear a cloth mask:

' You might think a piece of cloth would do nothing to stop the spread of a microscopic organism like a virus, but that's actually wrong. COVID-19 is spread when a carrier coughs or sneezes, releasing respiratory droplets in the air that the virus lives on. The cloth mask absorbs those droplets, not fully, but in large measure, reducing the droplets that can land in another person's lungs. The main benefit of cloth masks is that they prevent carriers of COVID-19 from spreading the disease to others.

' 'I don't need to wear a mask because I'm not sick.” Evidence has emerged that people without symptoms can spread the virus. Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control, said earlier this month that as many as 25 percent of people infected with COVID-19 do not show symptoms. Even if you're not sick, you could still be endangering the people around you.

' Healthy people wearing masks will break the stigma around mask-wearing. There have been a few times before the arrival of COVID-19 where I've worn a mask in public because I was sick with a routine cold and didn't want to spread the germs to others. Doing so invites a lot of sideways glances from people wondering if I'm on death's door. It's very rare to see someone wearing a mask in public, and most people don't want the extra attention it brings. That's why Americans have been slow to adopt this new practice that is now common in East Asian countries like China, Japan and South Korea. But if enough people start wearing masks as a precaution, those who are genuinely sick won't feel so sheepish about donning that potentially life-saving garment, and that's good for everyone.