We are working to start a local mask bloc to our area of Greenville, SC. Mask blocs are a mutual aid organization that distributes free masks and other resources to the community to reduce the harm of COVID-19.
SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are not accessible to many with the CDC’s Bridge Access Program having ended in August 2024. It was funded to give free COVID-19 vaccines to adults without health insurance and adults whose insurance did not cover all COVID-19 vaccine costs. It is now 170 dollars to get this years Novavax non-MRNA vaccine. How many cannot afford this? How many who can afford it, or whose insurance covers, do not for various reasons including reservations about vaccines, previous negative interactions, lack of knowledge on the need to update covid vaccines every 3-4 months (mRNA) 6 months (non-mRNA) for effectiveness?
In addition to this, vaccines are ONLY helpful for preventing hospitalizations, NOT SPREADING INFECTIONS. Even so, it is deceptive to refer to these infections that don’t require hospitalizations as “MILD”.
“We need to be very, very firm with our messaging that there is no such thing as a mild SARS-CoV-2 infection. There is no such thing as a SARS-CoV-2 infection that does not have prolonged consequences. Until we can fully understand the long-term effects of Covid, and who is susceptible and who is not, the only thing that we can do to protect ourselves, our families, our immune systems–in the long term–is to avoid infection.” -Dr. David Putrino, Assistant Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine
So what protects us from airborne pathogens? MASKS.
Every time we choose to mask in public, that is a potential chain of transmission broken. Surgical and cloth masks are unfortunately NOT effective for protection against airborne pathogens. To be most protective, you should use a high-filtration mask such as: KF94, KN95, FFP2, FFP3, N95, N99, N100, P100
Check out the images below and note a few things: there is more transmission TODAY than for 40.6% of the pandemic. The amount of cases THIS YEAR are higher than it ever reached in all of 2020 and 2021 in the United States. The pandemic is not going to end any time soon. It is a choice we must make in regards to what precautions we will take to protect ourself and others.
