A face mask is a barrier, not a filter

To The Eagle:

Once again a particular contributor has stated, not for the first time, that a face mask is useless in the fight against airborne infection. That’s simply not true. Why does this person cling to their ignorance? Why is the sky blue?

So. Six hundred doctors disagreed with Dr. Fauci’s and the CDC’s methods for dealing with the pandemic and wrote letters about it.

So what. Many thousands of other physicians in this country did not write such letters. They knew better and were too busy dealing with the effects of a pandemic made worse by a president too uncaring and incompetent to lead the nation in its battle against the Covid virus.

The former president refused to publicly advocate basic pandemic precautions because he was a nincompoop, not because he received letters from doctors. He was a know-it-all who had little use for advice.

A face mask is in fact not a filter. It is a barrier. A HEPA air cleaner is a filter. It can screen out germs. An umbrella is a barrier. It repels droplets. A face mask repels droplets that might contain germs. That is why medical professionals refer to wearing a face mask and a protective gown as “droplet precautions.”

I tire, Mr. Editor, of seeing freedom of speech misused as liberty to lie, mislead and misinform.

Grace Ling

Puget Island