In Kansas counties that adopted mask rules last summer, the spread of COVID-19 slowed, new research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows.
The study by federal and state epidemiologists suggests that if more counties follow suit, it could help stem a disastrous groundswell that has hospitals in Kansas and across the Midwest reeling.
The release of the new CDC publication comes just two days after Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly made her second attempt to get Kansans across the state to mask up. Most counties overrode her first statewide mask order, and they could do the same to this one.
Physicians at the University of Kansas Health System say taking masks and social distancing seriously saves lives and eases the rush on hospital beds.
Even if all Kansans followed their advice fastidiously and immediately, incubation periods mean the record surge across the state would likely intensify before it gets better. “This pandemic is very quick to get worse and very slow to get better.”
“This (pandemic) is very quick to get worse,” anesthesiologist David Wild said, “and very slow to get better.”
“People are in the hospital for four, five, seven days, if they’re not in the ICU,” he said. “If they’re in the ICU, it may be 15 or 20 or 30. And so it will take some time before we see the benefits of those behaviors changing.”
That means it would likely take three weeks or more of very conscientious efforts by Kansans before hospitals start to get some of the respite — and freed up beds — that they desperately need.
Doctors fear COVID-19’s record surge across the state could worsen over Thanksgiving and Christmas instead.
Already, hospital officials say they’re spending hours calling intensive care units in other cities and neighboring states to see who can fit more people. They’re postponing kidney stone surgeries just to free up a few extra beds, or treating patients in hallways and waiting rooms.
This summer, the Republican-led Legislature passed a law that blocks Kelly from requiring masks. The most she can do is issue rules that county commissions can then reject.
She did so in July, but 80 of the state’s 105 counties blocked the effort. Some have since changed their tunes. Sixty-five still have no mask rules.
Kelly said Republican leaders and others have signaled to her that more county commissions are ready this time to come on board.
“We have reached a new stage in our fight with this virus,” she said, and mask-wearing would help “turn the tide.”
County commissions have until Wednesday to act before Kelly’s rules take effect. They can tweak her version as they see fit — or can again buck her effort entirely.
