Many people are wearing face masks when they go out into public areas because of the COVID-19 pandemic and fear of contracting the disease, but do these masks really help? In my opinion I believe that masks are both helpful and dangerous at the same time.

Some reasons that I believe that masks can be dangerous is because people prioritize them a lot over many other safety precautions like not going outside for unnecessary causes and justifying it with the fact that you were wearing a mask. Also because many people do not have a lot of masks a lot of those people wear masks more than once. A face mask is worn on your face hence the name and if it gets in contact with the coronavirus or any other disease, there is a chance that the virus can last for up to 24 hours on surfaces like cloth, cardboard and plastic and up to 72 hours on metals as seen in this article https://www.livescience.com/how-long-coronavirus-last-surfaces.html. Another reason that face masks can be ineffective is because “if a mask is not tested and approved as a legitimate N95 respirator by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), it’s not going to do much to stop the new coronavirus from reaching your mouth or nose.” As stated in forbes magazine.

I asked some of my peers what they thought about whether face masks were effective and these were two of their responses. (Eunice Kim Cypress high school 10th grade) I think that masks help to a certain extent. not only are there thousands of holes in-between the stitchings of the mask, but there are openings near the nose, under the chin, and on the sides. so although it’s not the greatest protection, it’s the best. (not talking about n-95s)

I mean specifically for the n-95s i think that they are much more effective because they seal off the nose and mouth area but it still doesn’t

prevent the virus from spreading, we can see that with the current numbers of healthcare workers that are catching the virus even with proper gear. As you can see my peer also disagrees with the fact that facemasks are actually helpful.

<Ethan Kim / El Rancho Charter School 8th Grade>