DID THE ANTI-MASKERS FAIL YET AGAIN?
Starbucks managed to make its way into the headlines after being a hub for the novel coronavirus in a recent outbreak. The incident that took place on 8 August saddened the masses and acted as a touchstone for the masses in the west who still do not understand the wonders a simple mask can do.
The incident took place in the city of Paju in South Korea where a cluster of 27 people came into contact with the virus. Though that does not come as a surprise as people are starting to accept the unimaginable rate at which the virus manages to travel. In addition to being in a confined area, the people were also linked to each other by the centralized air conditioning making it the zone of infectious air.
This should be known by some people of the US who think that the mask does not help one from the virus. The US citizens have been a victim of serious misinformation that is backed by no real study whatsoever.
Further in Paju, three dozens of people were said to be infected right outside the Starbucks outlet by 24 August. What comes as a striking surprise is a fact that this number might have gone up to 3000 by now. For this, the South Korean government has decided to implement the strictest kind of social distancing. This will lead to a serious hit on the economy.
Let us take a look into what the experts say.
“This speaks volumes about the role masks can play,” said Ma Sang Hyuk, a pediatric infectious diseases physician at Changwon Fatima Hospital in South Korea. “Masks may not provide 100% protection, but there’s nothing out there that’s as effective.”, says Ma Sang Hyuk, a pediatric expert in South Korea.
“If we fail to flatten the curve this week we believe we will be faced with a very important crisis, that the virus will spread to the entire nation”, says Yoon Tae-Ho, an official in the Health Ministry of South Korea.
“The Starbucks case is one of the most important opportunities to study risk factors among a more or less controlled cohort of people”, says Arnold Bosman, the director at Transmissibe VB
After such a serious outbreak, the most positive thing to hear was that the FOUR people who wore a mask that day tested negative!
The west is yet unassertive about whether the mask really can help them or not. The discussions continue to go on. Currently, there has been a humongous spike in the sale of face masks in South Korea. Experts at the KCDC are confident that the rising cases will not be overestimated this time around.
The novel coronavirus has infected over 24 million people worldwide and has been responsible for over 820,000 deaths since its arrival. People are being educated around the world about the measures to be taken. The US still leads the charts in terms of the number of cases.
