Kudos to the California government on the proclamation requiring residents to wear face masks in public.  Masks have been shown to minimize the transmission probability down to 1.5%.  Unfortunately, the general anti-mask populace doesn’t seem to really understand the depth of the problem and are only thinking of themselves and their own livelihood.

One of the challenges with COVID-19 is the fact that people could be infected with COVID-19 without ever getting sick or displaying symptoms.  These are known as asymptomatic carriers.  Furthermore, another challenge is the fact that you could still be infecting others before displaying any of the COVID-19 symptoms.  Both of these reasons are some of the factors as to why COVID-19 very difficult to deal with.  Think about it… you are infected without realizing you’re infected.  And you’re infecting other people all while you have no idea that you’ve been infected.  That’s scary.

One of the effective ways to minimize transmission rates is to not see anyone.  These were the stay at home orders issued by most states.  Another way to minimize transmission rate is to wear masks.  The picture below represents approximate transmission rates for different situations.  Since staying at home full time is not possible (people need to shop for groceries, check up on family living nearby, etc), wearing mask is also another effective way to minimize the transmission rate.

Since a person infected with COVID-19 might not even know they’re infected, wearing a masks not only protects you from getting infected by others, but it also protects others from getting infected by you!  Wearing masks protects everyone whether you know it or not.  An ounce of prevention (wearing masks) is worth a pound of cure (becoming infected and requiring hospitalization)!

So… Wear masks. Save lives.