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Oakland County health director says masks work, pointing to successes of 2020

By and David Komer online producer
Published  August 10, 2021 6:20pm EDT
Health Works sponsored by Henry Ford Health Systems
FOX 2 Detroit

FOX 2 - The rules keep changing and now people across the US are once again being urged to follow CDC guidance and to mask up in public.
 
After a summer being mask-free for many, it's hard to go back to wearing those face coverings. But here at FOX 2, we're being asked to wear masks in the buildings - vaccinated or not. And so are the Big Three auto companies and they're not alone.

The rules keep changing and some are asking how much masks even help?

Mask wearing is being urged indoors in many places around Metro Detroit. So we asked the doctor how do we know it helps to stop the spread of Covid.

So what do we know about masks preventing Covid at this point? Dr. Russell Faust, the medical director of the Oakland County Health Division says, look to the evidence from last year.

"Nobody was happy during 2020," he said. "But on the flip side was we didn't see any flu in 2020 in Oakland County, probably nationally, in places where masks were mandated. We didn't have the common cold running through families like mine, for example.

"And now that we've spent the summer without masks mandated we're starting to see these things again."

Here in Michigan, we're trying to take preventive measures because the delta variant has not caused any surges here yet. 

Doctors are getting out the warning asking people to get vaccinated and wear masks in large gatherings or indoor public cases in hopes of preventing another surge.