To the editor:

Everyone is now concerned to varying degrees about getting this new coronavirus infection. We know now that all age groups are at risk for severe disease with the elderly at greatest risk.

There has been much talk about the availability and use of personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers and others at risk of exposure. In reality we are all at varying risks for exposure and serious consequences up to and including death from this virus. Because of this, I think it is time we all start doing something besides just social distancing to protect each other.

It is time we all start doing like we see people in Asian countries do: we should all be wearing masks in public. I can hear some of you saying that we have been told masks do not protect the general public, especially the simple surgical or homemade masks. While there may be some truth to that, there is still a very large benefit to other people if someone who has the virus wears such a simple mask.

The problem is that nobody knows, especially without widespread testing, if they might have this virus. Many who get it have no symptoms the first few days even though they can be spreading the virus. So you don’t know if anybody you meet might have the virus. And you and they don’t know if you have it.

That is why we should all be wearing those simple surgery type masks, even the homemade ones. They greatly reduce the chance of the virus spreading and infecting others if the wearer might unknowingly have the virus. And if we all wear masks in public we are protecting each other. Think of it as “mutually assured protection.”