Wearing a well-fitting mask along with vaccination, self-assessment, and physical distancing helps protect you and others by reducing the chance of spreading COVID-19. What is already known about this topic? My focus is on COVID face masks and the prevailing science we have for almost 20 months. However, I want to address this mask issue at a level of 50,000 feet in restrictive lockdown policies in general. I draw on the excellent work done by Gupta, Kulldorff and Bhattacharya on the Great Barrington Declaration (GBD) and a similar impetus from Dr. Scott Atlas (advisor to POTUS Trump) who, like me, was a strong advocate for a type of focused protection that was based on an age-risk stratification approach.
The best way to protect yourself and others from COVID-19 and its variants is to stay current with COVID-19 vaccination, which means receiving a primary series and booster doses when you are eligible, as recommended by the CDC. In addition, while COVID-19 is still actively circulating, wearing a mask maximizes your own protection and helps prevent the spread of COVID-19 to others.
