Abandoning Masks Puts >100 million Americans at Risk of Severe Illness or Death. Me included.
COVID-19 has been one of the top leading causes of death in the past
two years and we have removed the strongest barricade against it. It’s heartbreaking.
On December 14, 2020, the FDA granted emergency use to the Pfizer vaccine. With abundant high-quality masks and vaccines in our county today, we now have all the tools we need to stop this life-threatening virus from spreading. Yet, cases are rising once again.
A CDC study explains how we lost more people to the virus during the Omicron surge than the Delta surge. Omicron is less deadly but much more transmissible. More infections led to more hospitalizations and deaths in the past winter. When the medical system collapsed, people couldn’t be treated in time. People also died of other emergency causes.
During the Omicron wave, I visited my family in Massachusetts. Vaccine over-confidence drove me to let my guard down. I was infected by a family member who was also vaccinated. The holiday week turned into a nightmare. My kidneys flared up. Because of burning pain in my back, my husband alerted my nephrologist. Wasting no time, Dr. Lin called in a COVID treatment that wasn’t widely available at the time. The Pfizer pills were delivered to my home the night before New Year’s Eve. Congestion, headache, insomnia and shortness of breath ended in a week. The coughs took another couple of weeks to subside. I recovered because Dr. Lin cares deeply about his patients. I realized that I was really lucky because 18,400 Americans died during January 30 to February 5, according to NBC News’ tally.
IgA nephropathy makes me vulnerable to COVID-19. Now I’m boosted and had COVID, but I still wear masks to stay safe because my nephrologist told me to. The incurable autoimmune disease can cause my kidneys to inflame when my immune system responds to antigens.
As a photographer and writer, I cover events. I meet and talk to people of all ages from all walks of life. I cannot ask for vaccination proof before interviewing people for stories. My job is my life. My masks are my first line of defense.
I don’t want to get COVID again or pass the virus to someone else. My friend Dr. Robi Tamargo got COVID 4 times. She contracted the virus during the first wave, then got Delta twice and later the Omicron variant too. The virus disabled her and completely destroyed her immune system. She was recently interviewed by Jim Morelli at Boston 25 News. On MaskTogetherAmerica’s social media platform, I have published her story in multiple episodes over the last two years. During her relapse over Christmas, she was diagnosed with an acute neurological disorder, Guillain Barré Syndrome, and lost her mobility. She had to relearn how to swallow food and walk after being hospitalized for 40 days.
Honestly, even though I tell everyone to mask up, I hate wearing a mask because my glasses fog up, especially with most N95 masks. I can’t do my job properly when I can’t see through the lenses. It is also hard to breathe through layers of filtering materials. Still, I wear my masks.
This mere inconvenience or physical discomfort is justified because of my hypersensitive kidneys, since I had gross hematuria as a side effect from the COVID vaccines. My case was documented and published by Dr. Lin. My nephrologist doesn’t recommend a 2nd booster vaccine for me. With my health condition, masks offer more reliable protection.
“Mask all you want, just don’t make me.” “My body my choice…” I get all kinds of angry responses for the public service announcement I posted on MaskTogetherAmerica’s Facebook and Instagram account. I wish I could help these people see the magnitude of the tragic outcomes caused by people spreading the virus randomly to strangers. You can’t tell who is immunocompromised, asthmatic, diabetic, fighting cancer or taking care of elderly family members. That person could be sitting next to you on a packed subway car.
I look young and healthy for a 53-year-old. You can’t see what’s happening inside my body — the fact that the virus can cause my kidneys to leak blood and protein into my urine — you won’t see that.
Even though COVID-19 hospitalizations remain low at the moment, we are not out of the woods. With mask requirements being removed in schools and businesses, we are once again at risk of another wave.
Since late February, the CDC has been reporting the community-level risk based on hospital admissions and ICU capacity. Dr. Fauci warned that the current reports on case counts are underestimated. We could be in the midst of a surge but the general public would not be aware of it.
COVID-19 spreads from an infected person mostly through aerosols. In an indoor environment, the virus-laden particles become airborne. To reduce the viral load in the air, everyone needs to mask up together. Masks are an insurance. The virus can pass from someone pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic. A double-boosted person can also get COVID and infect others.
The American Medical Association reported that at least 2.7% of U.S. adults — about 7 million people are immunocompromised. As stated in an article in PubMed Central, over 75% of adults in the U.S., ~176.1 million individuals, are considered at increased-risk for severe COVID-19 infection by CDC criteria.
Think about people who are uninsured, especially those who work in-person and take public transportation every day. ~5.5 million people use the NYC subways daily. Over 2.9 million people travel on flights in the U.S every day.
In the U.S., lots of people are missing the booster shot. Only 33% of the population is boosted. Immunity from vaccines or infection wanes in a matter of months. With these highly transmissible and vaccine evading variants, we need at least three shots for most people to get the optimal protection. Lots of children are not vaccinated at all.
Mask up in public transit. Indoor masking is critical. We need to get ahead of the pandemic.
I lost two friends to COVID-19. Every day I think about their partners and children they left behind. Dr. Berry Webber was a surgeon at MT Sinai Hospital in Queens. He would still be here if masks were available and mandated at the healthcare settings when he contracted the virus in the spring of 2020. Christopher Terry worked in my apartment building as a concierge. He was only 39, a handsome and healthy fellow. He politely rejected the mask I bought for him and the other workers, unaware of the irreversible consequence. Like many frontline workers, Chris traveled to work by taking the subway. The virus took him from us. His wedding was just two months away when he lost his young life.
COVID-19 is not just a death sentence for some people. COVID-19 is an inferno to a million others. Post-acute Sequalae of SARSCoV-2 isn’t just about loss of smell or “brain fog.” COVID-19 can trigger massive inflammation that causes damages to multiple organs. Many of my friends are living with permanent health issues with the heart, brain, skin, gum, kidneys…and lungs. Because of their debilitating health, some have even lost their jobs and homes.
We have had enough, haven’t we?
If rushing to normalcy means killing and sickening millions of people, that’s not normal at all.
As founder of MaskTogetherAmerica, I invite you to co-sign “A Letter from All Americans Who Need the Protection of Universal Masking.” This letter explains in detail the size of the population that is at risk of severe COVID-19. Through this letter, we want to help policymakers understand the importance of letting over 100 million people live without fear.
