The State wide mask mandate in Wisconsin was ended on April 5th, 2021. After the announcement of the state wide mandate ending, Outagamie County Public Health officer (Natalie Vandeveld), County Executive (Tom Nelson) and County Board Chair (Jeff Nooyen) issued a local public health order to continue requiring face coverings in portions of Outagamie County. When inquiring about how long we could expect this order to be in place, I was told, “Until we reach community immunity through vaccination levels in the 80% range”. 80% is an awfully high number to be expecting from vaccines that are not FDA approved, and I feel that this number is not a realistic expectation.

According to a study found on the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health:

The physical properties of medical and non-medical facemasks suggest that facemasks are ineffective to block viral particles due to their difference in scales [16], [17], [25]. According to the current knowledge, the virus SARS-CoV-2 has a diameter of 60 nm to 140 nm [nanometers (billionth of a meter)] [16], [17], while medical and non-medical facemasks’ thread diameter ranges from 55 µm to 440 µm [micrometers (one millionth of a meter), which is more than 1000 times larger [25]. Due to the difference in sizes between SARS-CoV-2 diameter and facemasks thread diameter (the virus is 1000 times smaller), SARS-CoV-2 can easily pass through any facemask [25]. In addition, the efficiency filtration rate of facemasks is poor, ranging from 0.7% in non-surgical, cotton-gauze woven mask to 26% in cotton sweeter material [2]. With respect to surgical and N95 medical facemasks, the efficiency filtration rate falls to 15% and 58%, respectively when even small gap between the mask and the face exists [25].

Clinical scientific evidence challenges further the efficacy of facemasks to block human-to-human transmission or infectivity. A randomized controlled trial (RCT) of 246 participants [123 (50%) symptomatic)] who were allocated to either wearing or not wearing surgical facemask, assessing viruses transmission including coronavirus [26]. The results of this study showed that among symptomatic individuals (those with fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose ect…) there was no difference between wearing and not wearing facemask for coronavirus droplets transmission of particles of >5 µm. Among asymptomatic individuals, there was no droplets or aerosols coronavirus detected from any participant with or without the mask, suggesting that asymptomatic individuals do not transmit or infect other people [26]. This was further supported by a study on infectivity where 445 asymptomatic individuals were exposed to asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 carrier (been positive for SARS-CoV-2) using close contact (shared quarantine space) for a median of 4 to 5 days. The study found that none of the 445 individuals was infected with SARS-CoV-2 confirmed by real-time reverse transcription polymerase [27].”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7680614/#b0070

I believe instead of masking, we should be advocating for people to live overall healthier lifestyles. It has been found that almost 80% of people who have been hospitalized for Covid have been overweight or obese. (https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/08/covid-cdc-study-finds-roughly-78percent-of-people-hospitalized-were-overweight-or-obese.html)

Almost 40% of Wisconsin resident are obese. (https://www.fammed.wisc.edu/obesity-rates-wisconsin-higher-previously-thought/#:~:text=According%20to%20findings%20from%20the%20Survey%20of%20the,the%20national%20average%20obesity%20rate%20of%2034.9%20percent.)

Wearing a mask (as well as vaccination), should be a personal health decision. Outagamie County needs to expire their mask orders and focus on actually helping their residents to live healthy lifestyles.

More information regarding the harmful effects of continued masking will begin posting to the FaceBook group, “Petition to end Outagamie County Mask orders”

https://www.facebook.com/groups/447163863043621