With the publication of the end of mask use in healthcare settings, the last health measure that tied us to the pandemic caused by COVID-19 disappears. It is undoubtedly an event that we should celebrate for what it signifies, although we would be wrong to forget what it has meant to get this far.
I'm talking about the lives that have been lost, the illnesses that have developed, and the enormous healthcare advancements that have occurred in just three years.
Moving on with our lives as if nothing had happened will mean we have learned nothing. The mandatory use of masks and the hygiene measures maintained proved that they not only helped curb coronavirus contagion, but also reduced flu cases by more than 96%%, chickenpox by 83%%, mumps by 69.54%%, and whooping cough by 96.62%%. This not only means significant savings in healthcare costs in all respects (visits to health centers, hospital admissions, medications...), but it also translates into everyone enjoying better health and reducing the risk of death from respiratory diseases to historic lows.
Dropping masks doesn't have to mean abandoning the idea of taking care of ourselves, much less taking care of those around us, especially the most vulnerable. Not being in a pandemic doesn't mean we love our elders or our children any less, and if we sought to protect them then, why not continue now?
It is everyone's responsibility to wear or not wear a mask in spaces that may pose a risk. Not incorporating this protective measure into our lives at the appropriate times is to neglect the health of the citizenry in general and those who matter most to us in particular.
Should we live in fear? Clearly not, but just as sports are already part of our culture for health care or sunscreen for cancer prevention, we should normalize the use of masks as a preventive measure against respiratory diseases. Not to do so would be to have not learned, and to make the same mistake again.
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Loreto Gomez Guedes
President of the College of Pharmacists of Las Palmas
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