What About Masks?

Updated July 16, 2020

My opinion on mask-wearing is simple - wear one. It is simply common sense. When you wear a mask, the physical barrier created reduces the odds  of ingesting and transmitting  the virus. Now if everybody does the same, we may not cure the disease but we can certainly reduce the rate of transmission. This, in turn, buys us valuable time to either find a vaccine or a cure. Let us not inundate, an already overburdened, medical system with more patients. So please wear a mask when venturing out in public. 

Unfortunately though, no matter how much people preach, and how much evidence they have to back it up, there will always be a portion of the population that will rebel. And quite frankly, we live in a day and age, where many are hypocritical. For example, if masks are no longer required, when the number of cases inevitably shoots up, the same people who were fighting against masks will complain that the number of cases are increasing due to people not wearing masks. If society is somehow able to get past that roadblock, and is willing to work through these times together, as a team, maybe, just maybe we will be able to get through this pandemic. 

How did I reach this conclusion? Here are some reasons why… 

Over the past few weeks, as more and more establishments like stores and restaurants reopen to the public, a new controversy has emerged - can you force somebody to wear a mask? If so, how? Some of the defiance is driven by political opposition and even disbelief of public-health officials’ advice that masks help prevent the spread of the virus. In fact, during the early stages of the pandemic, even Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, cautioned against the widespread use of masks as he felt that they were to be conserved for front-line medical workers. He changed his mind sometime in the middle of April, saying that masks were effectively tools in protecting oneself from the virus especially in situations where social distancing cannot be maintained.

There is also a political divide on wearing masks. There was a coronavirus poll conducted by Axios-Ipsos which shows a dichotomy between Democrats and Republicans on mask-wearing habits.

• Between April 10 and May 4, the number of Democrats who wore masks when leaving home rose from 49% to 65%.

• The percentage of Republicans who wore masks, during the same time period, rose from 29% to just 35%. This is a lower percentage increase from a much lower base.

Governors in many red states like Nebraska have refused to mandate facial masks in public, even as cases began to rise in recent weeks. At the same time, leaders in blue states, especially those that grappled with large outbreaks of COVID-19, have urged residents to wear masks, with California governor, Gavin Newsom, mandating their use last week.

However as the number of cases increase across the country, things are changing even in the red states. President Trump, recently, promoted wearing masks. In Alabama and Montana, two conservative states,  governors said that people would be obligated to wear masks while in public. Montana hit a new high for cases and Alabama recorded a new single-day peak in COVID-19 deaths. More than 20 plus states have mask mandates, including California, Maryland, New York and Virginia. Some states, such as Ohio and Texas, require masks only in counties where coronavirus infection rates are high. Mandating statewide mask use often runs into opposition as was the case in Ohio, where  governor Mike DeWine had to back down in the face of fierce resistance.

The private sector is doing its part as well. On July 15, 2020, Walmart issued a mandate that as of July 20, all customers need to wear a mask while shopping at either the Walmart or Sam’s Club stores. This is regardless of the mask requirement imposed by the local county. To help ensure consistency with this new process, all stores will have a single entrance.

A day later, Target, CVS Health, Kohls and Kroegers make similar announcements. Target said its new mask policy, which takes effect Aug. 1, does not apply to young children or those with underlying medical conditions. Like Walmart, it will station employees at store entrances to remind shoppers to wear masks and provide disposable ones if needed. 

There is scientific evidence to prove that mask wearing does help. A newly published study suggests that the use of surgical masks helped reduce rates of Covid-19 infections among health-care workers at the Mass General Brigham hospital in Massachusetts. According to Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the pandemic could be brought under control over the next four to eight weeks if “we could get everybody to wear a mask right now.” 

If someone were to ask what this holiday means to us, we would get a gamut of responses from the most obvious like turkey, family, shopping to more offbeat ones like football. This is an important and cherished holiday for it is the only one of its kind in the United States and I daresay, anywhere in the world, that transcends race, religion and even politics. The importance of this holiday cannot be overestimated. But how did this holiday originate?

If you ask somebody about the history of Thanksgiving, most of us would say that the holiday came about due to the efforts of Sarah Josepha Hale, who campaigned for a day of national unity when the nation was undergoing regional tensions, which would eventually lead to the civil war. President Abraham Lincoln agreed and proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving on November 26. Some of us would go to a much earlier point in history to the pilgrims celebrating their harvest back in 1621. It was a day when the English colonists and the native Wampanoag tribe shared their feasts.

But did you know that the origins of Thanksgiving go much deeper than that? In ancient Rome, the Pagans celebrated their thanksgiving festivities in early October. The festival, called Cerelia, was dedicated to the goddess of the harvest, Ceres. The Catholic Church took over Cerelia and it became well established in England, long after the fall of the  Roman Empire. In England the "Harvest Home" has been observed continuously for centuries.

Closer to home, the early Aztecs of Mexico celebrated the harvest but in a more sombre tone. They beheaded a young girl, who was supposedly a representation of Xilonen, the goddess of new corn. The Pawnees also sacrificed a girl. The Native Americans in the southeast, danced the "Green Corn Dance" and began the new year at the end of the harvest. Thus, when the Native Americans and the English colonists first celebrated Thanksgiving, the concept would not have been new to either of them.

Regardless of the origin, let us not forget the spirit of Thanksgiving and what it truly celebrates. First and foremost, Thanksgiving celebrates diversity. The native Americans and the Pilgrims put aside their differences and celebrated together. They did not let language and cultural differences get in the way of the festivities. That tradition continues to this day. 

Closely related to diversity is the fact that the holiday is non-religious. We are grateful for all the blessings we have. Many of us will express this gratitude in the form of a prayer to a divine being regardless of what faith you follow or even if you don’t follow one. Thanksgiving captures that spirit.

Finally, Thanksgiving is all about gratitude for everything we have - not  just material wealth. There are things which are significantly more valuable than money, namely friends and family. Friends and family and by their natural extension, the surrounding community, is what one should be truly grateful for. We need to be surrounded by people who truly love us and accept us for who we are. We should also be thankful for our continued good health and happiness - things we take for granted.

This brings us back to the pandemic and how it has restricted the way we celebrate this important holiday. We still have many things to be grateful for. Yes, we were not close to many of our friends and family this year. But, thanks to technologies like Zoom, we were able to “connect” with many of them. In fact, some of us were even able to loop in people living outside the United States - thereby instilling the spirit of the holiday in countries where it is not even celebrated. We should also be grateful for the fact that the vaccines for the disease are round the corner and the preliminary results look very promising. Finally, we should never forget that there is still a lot of humanity in the world and we should all take a step back and appreciate it. Celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday in whatever way we can is the best way to do so.

Updated Jan 27, 2021

On Tuesday, January 5, 2021, voters in Georgia headed to the polls once again to cast their ballots for two Senators.  The incumbents in this election were Republicans Kelly Loeffler and David Purdue. Their respective challengers were Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. Just like the presidential elections two months earlier, this election too was a nail-biter where the outcome was not known until almost a day later and could have gone either way. In the end, Warnock won 50.8% of the votes vs Loeffler’s 49.2%. Ossoff’s margin of victory was even narrower - he won 50.4% of the votes versus Purdue’s 49.6%.

A runoff election is a second, or follow-up election, in which the top two vote-getters run against each other. Georgia election law requires that a candidate win more than 50% of the votes in order to be elected into office, barring which a runoff election is held.

Even though this was a state election, it was significant at the national level for a number of reasons. Prior to the elections, Republicans lead the senate seats by a 50-48 margin. The wins by the Democrats erase that gap and the two parties are tied in terms of Senate seats. When that happens, the Vice-President will become the tie-breaker. In other words, the Democrats will now control both the Congress and the Senate. 

Both the winners were historically significant. Warnock is the first African American to represent Georgia in the senate, while Ossoff is the first Jewish American to do the same. Moreover, at 33 years of age, he is also going to be the youngest senator currently in the Senate. Warnock also comes from humble beginnings - his mother was a sharecropper.

Perhaps the most significant aspect of the Democratic wins is that there were able to flip a traditionally Republican state. This follows the same pattern as the Presidential elections in November, where President-elect Joe Biden was able to carry that state and its 16 electoral votes - the first time a Democrat had done so since 1992. This could be attributed to two primary factors. One is the changing demographics of the state with more immigrants moving into the state over the last several years.  The second is the higher turnout of African American voters, attributable to the efforts of Stacey Abrams, a Democratic political strategist/activist. 

Prior to the runoff elections, President Trump pressured the Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, to overturn the November election results, something he refused to do. Trump and his supporters claim widespread fraud in the state during the presidential elections resulting in Biden’s victory. However, so far, most courts in the state have dismissed those charges, primarily due to a lack of evidence. The win by the Democrats in the Senate races has done nothing to quell those accusations by Trump’s supporters - quite the opposite.

The COVID pandemic contributed in a big way to the turbulence in the 2020 US elections. As a result of the pandemic, many voting districts encouraged their constituents to vote via mail-in ballots as opposed to in-person voting - the idea being that the former would limit physical contact. However, the sheer volume of mail-in ballots and the fact that most of the ballots were overwhelmingly Democratic caused many people to question the validity of those ballots. However, there has been no evidence of any widespread voting irregularities due to the presence of the mail-in ballots.

The violent uprising in the Capitol building on Jan 6, 2021, takes on even greater relevance in light of these losses by Trump and his supporters. Trump has lost all branches of the government and with it, his influence and his ability to be in the limelight. Time will tell how all this will pan out over the next few years. 

Updated March 3, 2021

India’s Bharat Biotech said its Covid-19 vaccine, called Covaxin,  has an efficacy of 81%. This has helped revitalize India’s inoculation drive and vaccine-diplomacy efforts. The 24-year-old company is one of the world’s largest producers of vaccines. It is little known outside of the industry (Ref: Prior  Update) but has a portfolio of 16 vaccines and exports to 123 countries. Bharat Biotech started its effort to develop a Covid-19 vaccine in the first half of 2020. India gave the vaccine an emergency approval in January while the third phase of the trial was still underway. This sparked skepticism and questions from experts. The authorization came alongside that of AstraZeneca, known as Covidshield, which is manufactured in India by the Serum Institute, another leading vaccine producer (Ref: Prior  Update). AstraZeneca is producing more than 50 million doses a month.

The results of Bharat Biotech’s trials now have alleviated some of the concerns and have put the initial incredulity to rest. The company remains steadfast in clearing up any concerns with its announcement on March 3, 2021.  The interim results of its Phase 3 trial, which consisted of giving 25,800 people between the ages of 18 and 98 either its vaccine or a placebo, suggest that it is effective against Covid-19. The company added that early indications show that it is also effective against the more-contagious U.K. variant of the virus. India has already administered Covaxin to more than one million people.

Both Covaxin and Covishield employ virus-based technology. Covaxin uses an inactivated vaccine (killed coronaviruses) while Covishield uses a common cold virus (known as an adenovirus) from chimpanzees that are modified to look like coronavirus. Both vaccines can be stored at 2C (35.6 F) to 8C (46.4F) and require two doses administered four weeks apart. 

Covaxin  is a source of national pride for India in that it was brought to market in under eight months in spite of heavy odds. It is also a testament to India’s role as a vaccine superpower. The company has already supplied 5.5 million shots of its vaccine for the Indian government’s vaccination campaign. Expectations are high for the Covaxin vaccine. 

It remains to be seen to what degree the public at large embraces Covaxin vis-a-vis Covidshield as India battles the continually evolving pandemic situation. India is in the middle of what may be the world’s most ambitious vaccination drives. It is trying to get shots to 300 million of its more than 1.3 billion citizens by August. It has administered around 15 million doses so far.

Incidentally, India has emerged as a surprise front-runner in vaccine diplomacy. India was able to send tens of millions of Astrazeneca’s Covishield doses abroad. Some of the first doses have been already shipped to Bhutan, Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, and Seychelles. Now, Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin plans to join the fray and also become a big exporter. The company is not new to the vaccine race. It has produced billions of doses of other vaccines over the years. The company announced that more than 40 countries were already interested in using its vaccine. The foreign ministry says India will continue to supply vaccines all over the world after taking into account domestic requirements and international demands and obligations.

Could the Indian government have waited in giving Covaxin emergency approval in January while the trials were ongoing? Yes. For the simple reason that it helps build credibility. Yes, the efficacy of the vaccine is very high but a lot of people have some misgivings on the drug based on the premature approval, thereby throwing cold water on what is a source of great pride for India. 

Updated October 28, 2021

There is no reason why people should not get vaccinated. According to the CDC, “COVID-19 vaccination reduces the risk of COVID-19 and its potentially severe complications.” This is not the opinion of a group of scientists. These are verified facts backed by scientific research. The current vaccines are effective even against the delta variant though at a reduced rate - from 90% to 66%. For the delta variant, fully vaccinated people experienced milder symptoms. Unfortunately, not everybody feels that way.

There are still large swaths of people who refuse to get themselves vaccinated. One set believes that these vaccines are still experimental and have not been tested enough. Another set believes that there might be some serious side-effects to them. Some claim that these vaccines were developed using cells from aborted fetuses. Then, there are the conspiracy theories - microchips are implanted along with covid vaccines or the entire covid pandemic has been manipulated by the government to control people. None of these concerns have been backed by science. On the other hand, science proves that vaccinations are essential for expeditiously attaining herd immunity.

Herd immunity occurs when a large portion of a community (the herd) becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. As a result, the whole community becomes protected — not just those who are immune. The quickest way of attaining this is by getting vaccinated. In other words, if you are one of those people who consciously chose not to get vaccinated, you are either preventing the community from attaining herd immunity or living off of the immunity of those who are vaccinated. I don’t know which is worse. That said, I am fully aware of the vaccine’s potential side effects.  

On a more personal note, I lost my 88-year-old grandfather this past spring. The cause of death was complications from an autoimmune disease known as the Guillain Barre syndrome. The doctors felt that the disease could have been a rare side effect of the Covid vaccine. The timing of everything seems to assert that diagnosis.  So am I contradicting myself - recommending the vaccination but also highlighting an adverse side-effect? Not really. 

According to the CDC, the occurrence rates of adverse events, including death, after taking the vaccine is low. We have to compare that to the rate of adverse events after contracting the virus and that is pretty high. Therefore, you need to do whatever you can to not get the virus. While the weeks prior to my grandfather’s death were some of the hardest my family has had to endure, there was never a moment we questioned his decision to get vaccinated. We may not realize it but, there is a risk to even the most basic activities that we partake in on a daily basis, like driving a car or even just crossing the road. Yet we never think of not engaging in those activities because the benefits far outweigh the potential risk. The same holds true for vaccinations. We need them to return to some level of a normal life.

Our lives have been disrupted in unprecedented ways for the past year and a half. It seems as if social distancing, remote events, restricted social gatherings, and masking, to name a few have almost become permanent fixtures of our existence. If we ever want to escape this ongoing predicament, we have to build herd immunity and the best way to do that is by getting vaccinated. If you are still skeptical,  I urge you to let science, and not any personal dogmas, guide your decisions.