The Zonta Club of The Coos Bay Area would like to thank all of you who are helping to protect our community by wearing a facial covering. In April, Zonta provided $2500 to Southern Oregon Workforce Investment Board, (SOWIB) to fund the procurement and dispersal of masks in some of our local grocery stores. Anecdotally, it seems to be a great success, as many of our community members are acting responsibly and adhering to CDC and OHA guidelines pertaining to facial coverings.

The latest data from the Proceedings of the National Academy for Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), states, “Public mask wearing is most effective at stopping spread of the virus when compliance is high. The decreased transmissibility could substantially reduce the death toll and economic impact while the cost of the intervention is low.” (Howard, 2020). The takeaway is, if we all participate in using facial coverings, we are less likely to experience significant community outbreaks of the virus.

There have been many rumors circulating online regarding facial coverings, the Zonta Club of the Coos Bay Area encourages people to question the sources of their information and evaluate their behaviors based on science. If we as a community want to reduce the spread of this serious and life-threatening illness, we must put our ideological differences aside and come together around evidence-based advice.