Omicron Hits, But Doesn’t Stop, Hamden’s Mayor

The mayor getting COVID is not surprising and her case is a good opportunity summarize a few facts about the omicron wave.

hamden-unaffiliated- mask help to prevent virus transmission, but they are not 100% effective, nothing is 100% effective.
The type of masks worn matters with this virus and especially with the omicron variant which is highly contagious. Masks made of cloth is the least helpful, medical grade/surgical grade is better, and N95/KN95 are the best.
It’s also important to wear a mask with a tight seal around the face, as gaps between the mask and the face allow air and particles to enter. You have to wear a mask over your nose as well as your mouth to prevent inhaling or exhaling particles through your nose. Wearing a mask only over your chin does nothing, leaving your nose out in the air uncovered does little to help prevent the virus being inhaled or exhaled.
Your hands can transmit the virus to your mask so every time you touch your mask, you could be contaminating it. If you touch your face with your hands, you can transmit virus particles. Wash or sterilize your hands before touching your mask or face. Your unsterilized or unwashed hands are the biggest culprit for transmitting virus and bacteria that cause illnesses.
If you take off your mask to eat or drink indoors in a public place, then you have completely defeated the purpose of wearing the mask. Politicians decided you could remove your mask while eating and drinking indoors for the purposes of not hurting food and beverage service establishments income. A doctor or scientist who is an expert in virus transmission would tell you that this is a foolish thing to do.
So if everyone wore the right kind of mask, and wore it properly, and made sure their hands were sterile before touching their mask and face, and did not remove it indoors around other people, and stayed 6 feet away from others, and stayed away from crowded settings, then they would significantly reduce (but not 100% eliminate,) the amount of virus exposure they had.
Mask mandates only work when people do it right.

Wishing all the best to our Mayor, Lauren "Stormy" Garrett. Rest up and come back and continue your good work for all of Hamden.

Thank you Heather- I could not have said it better.