On the 11th and 12th day of July, Miles and Brytney Cobia invited their closest

family members, including their parents who were in their 60s, on a weekend vacation in
a secluded lake house. The family spent most of their time outside, enjoying nature, and
took utmost precautions as they were enjoying their time by maintaining a safe distance
from each other but they didn’t wear face masks. A few days after their vacation, 8 out
of 11 people who were present in that vacation tested positive for COVID-19. The
couple said that they became complacent since everyone who was on that vacation
hasn’t gone to any gatherings or any public places a week before. Incidents similar to
this will most likely increase here in Iloilo as our government is starting to loosen up
restrictions to revive our economy. The first locally transmitted cases here in Iloilo was
dated back on April 1st at the municipalities of Guimbal and Lambunao. Six months
later, while I’m writing this speech, Iloilo is now ranked third out of all provinces in the
Philippines with the most number of new COVID-19 cases.
One of the main reasons why the number of cases here in Iloilo is increasing day
by day is because people are starting to be complacent and. Many are going out in
public without wearing a face mask because they don’t know its purpose and doesn’t
care about the risk that the virus could bring to their health. One popular example is
Atty. Larry Gadon, he stated that wearing a face mask is for show only because most
establishments doesn’t allow an individual to enter without it. He also said that face
masks are not effective since most Filipinos are wearing it, but the number of COVID-19
cases is still increasing. This confusion about the effectivity of a face mask started when
the world health organization released a statement earlier this year saying that healthy
individuals don’t need to wear a face mask, and if you wear one, it will not add
protection against the virus but, they reversed their stance a few months after. Up to this
day, some people still believed that wearing a mask will is not needed to protect them
from the virus because they have a high immune system.
COVID-19 virus is transmitted to another person through direct contact with a
respiratory droplet of an infected person that is being released into the air when he or
she sneeze, cough, or talk. The only way that we can protect ourselves when we are
around other people is by wearing a face mask. According to the study of Christopher
Leffler, et. al. entitled “Association of country-wide coronavirus mortality with
demographics, testing, lockdowns, and the public wearing of masks”, it was discovered
that in 198 countries across the world, those with cultural norms or government policies
favoring mask-wearing had lower death rates. Researchers also stated that 80 percent
of the population wearing masks would do more to reduce COVID-19 spread than a
strict lockdown. The effectivity of face mask was proven through the study of Dr. Philip
Anfinrud and his 2 other colleagues in their study entitled “Visualizing Speech-
Generated Oral Fluid Droplets with Laser Light Scattering”. It was an experiment using
high-speed video found that hundreds of droplets ranging from 20 to 500 micrometers
were generated when saying a simple phrase, but that nearly all these droplets were
blocked when the mouth was covered by a damp washcloth. The research of Mayo
Clinic also proved the effectivity of face masks as it stated in its conclusion that
facemask can block up to 95% or small droplet particles. Prevention is always going to
be better than cure. In this situation, we could say that wearing a facemask is better
than wearing a ventilator.