Wearing A Mask Is About Respect and…Yes, Freedom
By: Dr. Hesham A. Hassaballa
Tags: Society, Healthcare, Health, Medicine, Coronavirus

Wearing A Mask Is About Respect and…Yes, Freedom

Respect for the healthcare system, respect for each other, and freedom from COVID-19

Photo by Anshu A on Unsplash

As we are learning more about this virus and its transmission, it is becoming clearer that wearing masks can make a big impact in reducing the person-to-person spread of SARS CoV-2.

Unfortunately, the recommendation to wear a mask has led to significant anger (and even violence) among some of our fellow Americans. “It’s about freedom,” some say. “I have the freedom to not wear a mask, and no one can make me wear one.” I understand this sentiment. At the same time, we are all in this together, and each of us has a role to play in fighting this virus.

My colleagues and I — the doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, and others — are directly on the front lines, risking our lives to take care of the sickest patients afflicted by COVID-19. Our other American brothers and sisters not on the front lines can play their part by wearing a mask when out in public spaces. This is especially essential now that most of the country is emerging out of lockdown.

Now, we in the healthcare field did not answer the calling to get respect. While it is nice no doubt, receiving respect is not why I became an ICU doctor. I became an ICU doctor because I love helping people survive their critical illness, which is why the overwhelming death we have seen from COVID-19 has been quite distressful for my colleagues and me.

If I only have 35 ventilators and all are occupied by COVID patients, and you are patient number 36 that needs a ventilator to survive, I can’t help you.

Photo by Javier Matheu on Unsplash

And so, when I say wearing a mask is showing respect, it is the respect for the healthcare system and its capacity to take care of everyone who may need medical care. Now, this term, “healthcare system capacity,” is abstract and may not be clear what it means.

And so, let me put it this way: let’s say I am taking care of patients in the hospital in your city or town. Let’s say I only have 35 ventilators, and everyone is occupied by a COVID patient. If you are patient number 36 gasping for air and needing a ventilator to survive, I can’t help you.

This is a nightmare scenario for me as an ICU doctor, and I do not want to ever face this scenario. This is what “flattening the curve” means on a practical, “on the ground” level: it is allowing me to always be able to take care of every patient that comes to my ICU door that needs care. And wearing a mask when we are out in public helps lower the transmission of COVID-19 and keeps the healthcare system intact.

In addition, wearing a mask is about respect for each other. More and more evidence is emerging that people can spread COVID-19 either before they develop symptoms or without developing symptoms at all.

And so, when I wear a mask, I am protecting you from myself. The reverse is true as well. When I am wearing a mask, I am showing that I am doing what I can to protect everyone around me from this horrible disease. And while I’d much rather shake your hand in person, wearing a mask can be seen as the “new handshake” of the COVID-19 era.

Moreover, wearing a mask is truly about freedom: freedom from contracting this horrible affliction. Nothing in life is 100% except death and taxes. There is no guarantee that this measure or that will prevent us from contracting COVID-19 with 100% certainty.

Still, it is clear that wearing a mask makes a tremendous impact, and it can mean freedom from getting this disease.

Photo by Kristina V on Unsplash

And that means freedom from fever, body aches, fatigue; it means freedom from dangerously low oxygen levels that can threaten your life; it means freedom from gasping for air and possibly needing a ventilator. It means freedom from being alone in a hospital possibly for weeks on end; it means freedom from risking death — all alone without family at your side — from respiratory failure or kidney failure or heart attacks.

It means freedom from having our children possibly getting a mysterious and dangerous inflammatory illness, which has been fatal; it means freedom from young people — in their 30s, 40s, and 50s — getting and dying from strokes (which many of my colleagues have seen). Getting this illness will take away many of our freedoms which we take for granted.

When we wear a mask, it is not encroaching upon our freedom; it is doing what we can to preserve our freedom from a truly frightening scourge.

It is truly unfortunate that a mask has become a symbol of oppression. That was never the intention. A mask is a very simple way that all of us in the American family can protect each other and help protect our precious healthcare resources. It is the very least we can do.