LETTER: Masks work, but compliance is a problem

In his Oct. 23 column, Victor Joecks queries: If masks work, why are the COVID numbers increasing? The reason: Compliance is poor.

You do see people in stores with them. The problem is what they do among their friends and at work. That mask orders in states are not working does not mean that masks do not work. It could mean compliance, which no one has measured, is poor. If a study finding that masks don’t work was not published, it could be due to the study’s poor design, not the result.

As long as President Donald Trump, Mr. Joecks and others give lip service to the practice or actually mock the wearing of masks, people will continue to think that this is all a Democratic Party hoax. Trump derides Dr. Anthony Fauci for changing his advice. He ignores that, as science learned more, the advice appropriately changed. Ironically this increased knowledge is what saved his life.

Mask opponents justify that if Black Lives Matter marches could be unmasked, so can Mr. Trump’s rallies. No. Neither is acceptable. Two wrongs don’t keep people healthy.

When large unmasked events happen, the disease spreads. Increases of the disease have been traced to the Sturgis motorcycle rally. Many counties have had increases of disease after Mr. Trump held his rallies. Hospitals in red states are about to be overrun by COVID cases. So much for protecting the vulnerable. There is no such plan to protect them while we open up. That talk is just infected air.

Mr. Joecks has no plan to fight this disease. He just wants to let it run, and those who die, die. We are not about to round a corner. We are about to fall off a cliff.