ST. LOUIS, MO (KMOX) - Convincing people to wear a mask has been a challenge from the start of the pandemic. But as more people are immunized and transmission of COVID slows, will masks stay?
"It's hard for me to think that a year from now, we're going to be still wearing masks. I just logically don't see that," Dr. Alex Garza, head of the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force, tells KMOX's Maria Keena, "Now, what can you do after you've been vaccinated or after you had enough time post that second shot, if you're doing the two-shot or enough time past the single shot to have developed significant immunity, I think it's still important that people continue to practice all the mitigation strategies." Garza explains.
There are reasons why he says that, "So one there's still biological plausibility that people can become infected and spread the virus - asymptomatically. So if you think about what a vaccine does, it suppresses the ability of the virus to make you sick from a viral infection. Now, if you, if you develop enough immunity that you don't experience any symptoms, obviously you're not getting sick and you're not going to die, but you could still be an asymptomatic carrier, at least for a period of time, then you have that potential to still be spreading."
Garza points out, masks will be a challenge on two fronts -- messaging and a scientific perspective -- once a significant portion of the population is vaccinated.
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"We don't really want to create this division between the, you know, the haves and the have-nots with the haves being the people that were fortunate enough to get vaccinated, because that makes it really difficult for, you could see a storekeeper trying to police people that have been vaccinated and those that haven't coming in wearing a mask or those that aren't wearing a mask. So it's a little bit unfair, I think, to the population to try and segregate it that way. And so I think until we get enough of the population immunized, where we've received that herd immunity status, it's really important that we sort of act all as one community."
Garza tells KMOX he won't be surprised if some people continue to wear a mask for next flu season, "It's much more popular or consistent in Asian countries with masks. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see that. Influenza numbers have been almost non-existent. And there's a reason for that."
Garza adds he hopes the lessons learned from this pandemic will be used to prevent spread of future respiratory viruses,
Some people are willing to take whatever measures are needed just to see, and hug, their loved ones again. In our next report, KMOX's Carol Daniel asks "When will it end?" for nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.
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