Hospitals across the region are at capacities never before sustained. West Michigan hospitals are being hit harder than any other place in the state with COVID-19 cases. One emergency physician is asking the public to weigh their individual freedoms with what wearing a mask can mean for their health and getting back to some semblance of normal.
“If we want to get things back on track as quickly as possible, the first step, that to me infringes very minimally on people’s individual liberties, to say let’s wear a mask and prevent the spread.”
Dr. Rob Davidson is a West Michigan emergency physician and Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Medicare.
“It’s just going to allow us to do everything else we want to do like send our kids to school, like go to restaurants, go to movie theaters. We’re going to be able to do that that much faster. Get our economy back on track.”
Dr. Davidson says if everyone is wearing a mask, we can decrease COVID-19 transmission by 70% - 90%.
“And even if you don’t completely eliminate that chance, there is some evidence now that the viral load that you may contract is decreased. So, maybe you get 10 or 20 or 30-percent of the normal viral load you’re going to get and we are now finding more and more that correlates with severity of illness.”
Dr. Davidson is asking everyone do the reasonable and simple thing; wear a mask.