Advantages of wearing face masks – Re-opening of schools – Second wave of COVID in Spain – Evening statistics
Since so much has been written about the discomforts of wearing face masks, it is only fair to point out a few advantages. When I visited Beijing in 2000, the pollution was so severe (and it has gotten only worse since then) that many residents wore masks to screen out the dust particles in order to spare their lungs. Even though the atmospheric conditions here are much cleaner, the air can get fairly dry and dusty during the summer. Wearing a mask during mundane tasks such as, for example, mowing the lawn under such circumstances helps to prevent one’s throat from drying up as a result of dust inhalation.
Another result of wearing a face mask out of doors is rather surprising: I find that drivers going over driveways and crosswalks are more likely to yield the right-of-way to pedestrians with masks. I have no idea why this is so; I merely record what I have observed, both from my own experience and from what I have been told by others It is a most unexpected fringe benefit, but obviously it is one that I accept gratefully. In general, drivers in the greater metropolitan area of D. C. are not over-courteous towards pedestrians.
It appears that most schools will be re-opening this semester, although at least some portion of the classroom time will be online. For the colleges and universities, money is the main factor. Colleges have already lost billions of dollars nationwide in trying to provide virtual instruction this past semester. The cancellation of intercollegiate athletic events for the fall semester has also been a blow to their scheme of finance. Then, too, parents and students are beginning to wonder whether the benefits are worth the risk: enrollment has declined already. One of the many unforeseen consequences of the COVID virus is its effect on our educational system. It is impossible at this stage to predict what the end result will be; but there can be no doubt that the long-term impact on our schools will be enormous.
Spain is having a second wave of virus cases. It had one of the most stringent set of lockdown restrictions, which seemed to have tamed the virus; but once the restrictions were lifted the number of cases has been rising much faster than those of any of its European neighbors. It has been getting more than 3,000 new cases daily for much of August; whereas the daily rise at the end of June, when the restrictions had just ended, was between 100 and 150. The official number of deaths from the virus is 28,813; the excess death rate suggests that 44,596 is a more accurate figure (approximately 1 per 1,000 of the country’s population).
Still, the situation is less severe than it was during the spring. The mortality rate is considerably lower. The number of deaths over the past week is less than 150; on April 2nd alone the death toll was nearly 1,000. Most of the transmission is among younger people, and more than three-quarters of those who tested positive are asymptomatic. Only around 3% of current cases require hospital treatment, less than 0.5% need intensive care, and the current death rate is only 0.3%. In a way this news is encouraging. It suggests that a second wave of the virus, if it occurs here, may be less severe than the first. But of course no one knows what the long-term effects are – whether, for example, the asymptomatic positives sustained any heart damage as a result of their infection.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 23,359,690; # of deaths worldwide: 807,689; # of cases U.S.: 5,840,869; # of deaths U.S.: 180,152.