What do West High Students Think About Masks?

Andrea Ramos

COVID-19 has been spreading across the globe for nearly two years, infecting hundreds of millions of people, and killing nearly 6 million. Masks have proven to be effective in lowering the transmission rate of the virus, but have been severely politicized in the United States. While some people have been reluctant to wear their masks, others have been adamant about wearing theirs. I talked to some of the students of West High to try and understand students’ opinions on mask-wearing.  All of the interviews between students and me have been made anonymous for the safety of the students speaking due to the political nature of the topic.

Q: Do you think masks are necessary?

Student 1: “I think masks are necessary because they have proven effectiveness to slow the spread of the coronavirus”

Student 2: “I definitely do think that masks are necessary. I think that really people  who don’t like wearing masks are being selfish and childish.”

Anonymous student 3: “I think so. I think that we need some way to keep it [coronavirus] from spreading so quickly and if we don’t do anything it’s telling people that they can just do whatever they want and that’s gonna make it spread incredibly fast I think so it’s also like for protection plus also it is probably helping us get in the right mind set.”

Q: What is your opinion on masks?

Anonymous student 4: “I think you should buy a pack of yellow KN95 masks. You’ll look like a duck and that’s amazing so go on amazon and buy a pack of yellow KN95 masks to keep everyone safe and look like a duck it’s amazing.”

Anonymous student 5: “Masks suck but they help to keep like COVID down.”

Anonymous student 6: “I think that masks are really important and if everyone takes precautions like wearing masks and staying home if your sick it can do a lot better and get it over quicker but if you don’t or if your taking precautions but someone isn’t it feels really degrading and like its not worth it and it’s really important that everyone does it because it is worth it  and it’s easier to stop if we all just do simple things.”

Anonymous student 7: “I think masks are really important in stopping the spreading of the pandemic and so far I think west has done a really good job of wearing masks regardless of the lifted mandate so I think if we continue to wear masks especially higher grade masks then that would be an important step in getting over the pandemic.”

Anonymous student 8: “I think masks are a beneficial tool in which can prevent the spread of a multitude of viruses, including COVID-19, and I think it’s necessary we use the to prevent harm towards groups such as nurses or the elderly or children who are more affected by this I personally wear a mask because my mom is a nurse and it’s better that she doesn’t  get me infected from all the patients that she deals with and I think it’s good cause I don’t give it to her and that could spread to her patients and I think that people should wear masks if they just wanna help prevent spread in general and its similar to why people should get vaccines in general.” 

Hopefully these opinions are helpful in understanding the pulse of the student body at West, as we continue to battle against the pandemic in hopes of a return to normalcy.