Cohan: We should all wear masks during cold and flu season

Thousands of flu deaths could be prevented this winter if we simply put our masks back on for a couple short months. It’s the right thing to do.

Last year during cold and flu season, everyone was still locked into mandatory masking and social distancing, and the United States only saw about 600 flu deaths.

By comparison, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated there were roughly 22,000 flu deaths during the prior season.

It’s clear that public health measures don’t just stop the spread of coronavirus, but help with other illnesses as well.

We cannot ignore this. Infants and the elderly are most vulnerable to colds and influenza, and they don’t deserve to die now that we know such deaths can be prevented by measures like wearing a mask.

Thousands of lives were not lost to the flu last year, and that means people such as grandparents, infants, and individuals with comorbidities are still here with their families. It could be your friend or family member whose life could be saved this year thanks to masking.

The CDC defines peak cold and flu season as running from December to February. We all wore masks for more than a year, so we can certainly do it for three months.

Wearing masks to prevent illness is especially important as there is currently an uptick in summer colds and other respiratory illnesses, which is not typical for this time of year.

As I reported earlier this week, the uptick is likely attributed to the reopening of society, and Dr. Todd Ellerin, director of infectious diseases at South Shore Health, said it could be a signal for a severe flu season come winter.

Ellerin also said since there was such a significant decrease in cold and flu cases last year, the general public has decreased immunity, further highlighting the need to mask up.

In addition to saving lives, we also can save people the trouble of just getting a regular cold that takes them out of commission for a few days.

Most people get at least one cold every year, but last year, many people got through the winter months unscathed.

It would be great to get through another winter without getting sick again.

I’m not advocating for a lockdown, or for social distancing. No one wants to see those days ever again.

But we learned a lot from coronavirus, and some of those lessons should stick around for the greater good. People in many other countries wear masks regularly for reasons other than coronavirus — and we can too.

After all we have been through, getting hit hard by the flu this year would be terrible. If wearing a mask at the grocery store or in a restaurant could save at least one life from the flu — let alone the thousands we know it would — it would be worth it.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3dIGcOu