America's Face Mask Drama as Cases Rise Heading into Holidays

To do or not to do. That Shakespearean line is center stage in the continuing story being played out across the country. The one about face masks.

We saw it over the weekend here in Southern California with protests over California’s new stay at home order. As we’ve been reporting, when the clock struck 10 Saturday night and the 10pm-5am curfew took effect, protesters took to the street with one group in Orange County even burning masks as they shouted together.

The protests came just one day after the U.S Centers for Disease Control issued a statement advising Americans to “wear a mask to slow the spread.”

And the disease is clearing spreading, with case numbers up dramatically here in California and many other states.

That same day, a new study out of Kansas that looked at coronavirus infection rates found that counties that enforced a mask mandate saw the number of cases decline. Counties that didn’t saw cases rise.

The researchers say their findings are consistent with COVID declines in 15 states where masks were mandated compared with states without orders to wear masks.

And while public health officials say that a mask doesn’t necessarily guarantee by itself of not getting the virus, the research says it is the single most effective thing you can do greatly decrease the chances.

As San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore put it last week, just wear your darn mask.

(Photo Getty Images)