Content Analysis

 Here is an example of content analysis about climate change from the ASA :

Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve's Crook County - Example of ethnography

From the ASA an explanation about her ethnography on Youtube:

From Stanford University Press, Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve published a scathing account of Racism in Chicago's Cook County Courthouse.  Van Cleve, who is from Chicagoland originally,  spent ten years while at tending Northwestern U.  researching the Cook County Courthouse, the largest courthouse in the United States.  She is currently a sociology professor at Brown University.

Embedded below is an interview with Dr. Van Cleve on PBS:

Here is a bookreview from the ASA:  

There are three central aspects to Gonzalez Van Cleve’s argument in Crook County: her focus on professionals, her detailing of racial abuses, and her critical analysis of racism and racial injustice as embedded within court culture. Perhaps the most essential is her inverted lens on the court professionals. Rather than focusing on the impacts of an unjust criminal system on the Black and Brown individuals who pass through it, Gonzalez Van Cleve instead highlights the ways these injustices are carried out by the very professionals tasked with upholding and administering fair and just due process. In turning the lens on criminal justice professionals, Gonzalez Van Cleve articulates how systemic racism is managed, perpetuated, practiced, and understood by those “doing” colorblind racism, particularly in how they carry out unchecked racialized court abuses.

From Amazon,

Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve spent ten years working in and investigating the largest criminal courthouse in the country, Chicago–Cook County, and based on over 1,000 hours of observation, she takes readers inside our so-called halls of justice to witness the types of everyday racial abuses that fester within the courts, often in plain sight. We watch white courtroom professionals classify and deliberate on the fates of mostly black and Latino defendants while racial abuse and due process violations are encouraged and even seen as justified. Judges fall asleep on the bench. Prosecutors hang out like frat boys in the judges' chambers while the fates of defendants hang in the balance. Public defenders make choices about which defendants they will try to ""save"" and which they will sacrifice. Sheriff's officers cruelly mock and abuse defendants' family members. Crook County's powerful and at times devastating narratives reveal startling truths about a legal culture steeped in racial abuse. Defendants find themselves thrust into a pernicious legal world where courtroom actors live and breathe racism while simultaneously committing themselves to a colorblind ideal. Gonzalez Van Cleve urges all citizens to take a closer look at the way we do justice in America and to hold our arbiters of justice accountable to the highest standards of equality.

And here is an essay that Dr. VanCleve tweeted during the unprecedented pandemic of 2020-21:

https://contexts.org/blog/education-under-covid-19/ 

2 SocResearch BINGO! I found my research! Lesson 6

 RESEARCH BINGO!  

You can download this Bingo card by clicking here.

2 SocResearch Lesson 5cont'd

 

Reviewing the general types of research:

General Types of Sociological Research

• Longitudinal - a study that examines specific subjects over an extended period time.  For example, a researcher might interview kids at age 5, then at age 15 and then again at 25.  Some research is conducted over the course of decades by different researchers.
• Cross-sectional - a study that examines a group of people at a single point in time.  For example, like taking a section of cake that has different layers, a researcher might take a sample of people from a group like SHS.  The research might examine 10 students from each grade to get an understanding of the school as a whole. 
• Cross-cultural - a study that compares subjects from two or more cultures.
• Qualitative or Quantitative - qualitative is subjective and descriptive; it examines the qualities about a subject.  Quantitative is objective and involves examining numbers or statistics.
• Historical analysis - examing changes over time in comparison to present-day. 

1. What general type of research is your article?

Small group:  Explain what type of research your article is to your group.  Ask questions.  Help each other understand.

Now let's examine the specific ways that sociologists gather their research.  For more info,  Open Stax sociology textbook explains the methods in this chapter, see their graphic organizer below:

Methods of sociological research

These are some of the more common methods of research that you will come across in sociology:

Qualitative:

Survey - interviews that are open-ended 

Field work/ethnography - observing subjects by living with them, watching them and taking notes 

Content Analysis - examining the content of media or other cultural productions

 

Quantitative: 

Survey - questionnaires that are close-ended such as multiple choice or likert scale.

Experiment/Audit study - comparing the responses of two or more different reactions.

Statistical analysis - existing sources (data sets, such as GSS or Census data)

2.  Which of the methods above does Venkatesh use in the excerpt from Gang Leader? Explain when/how.  (Arguably he does 5 of them!)

3.  What methods are in your article?

Important considerations in research;  The importance of both ethics and peer-review in research:

Read this critique of Venkatesh's work and answer the question below.

4.  What are the criticisms of Venkatesh's Gang Leader research?

For more info on Venkatesh's work:

• Gang Leader for a Day on Amazon. 
• Read an excerpt from the book and download Venkatesh reading and talking about his book from NPR. 
• Venkatesh speaking on the Colbert Report and he explains that there are important ways of doing research correctly.
• Venkatesh speaking about his book and the research he did.  
• An interview at slate.com between Venkatesh and Alex Kotlowitz (There Are No Children Here).

           

Welcome Parents!

Sociology Honors with Salituro Zoom Link

https://zoom.us/j/2387098505
Meeting ID: 238 709 8505
(requires authentication using .d125 account)

Hello and welcome to sociology!

Thanks for being here. 
This is the blog we use for our class. 

Chris Salituro

Honors Sociology

csalituro@d125.org

www.sociologysal.blogspot.com

1. About Me.

        

Full Course Syllabus available here.

Important Items to note:

Dual Credit Class.

About dual credit

What is it?

Benefits 

Discounted college credit

College Application

College major/course prerequisite

 

Timeline  

Sep 1. Step 1: Applying for the dual credit program. (no committment)

Oct 1. Step 2: Register for class. (no committment)

Nov 1. Step 3: Pay tuition. (committed)

Post SHS. Step 4: Transferring credit to your college.

Cost $195

For more info - Loyola University Chicago dual credit site click here.

 

3. Sociology 

Recent Social Science emerged to study the extreme changes of the I.R.

Use of scientific method to gather data to understand how people are influenced by their societies especially in:

Structure and Institutions

Inequality: Social Class, Race, Gender

Meaning: Culture and Symbols

Not a debate class or rhetoric class

 

         Skills

Research and Data

Understanding People and Society

Mindfulness and Self-Awareness 

 

     

 Jobs

            Click here for a detailed study of what sociology majors do after college. 

         

2 Soc Research Lesson 1: The importance of Sociological Research

This is the beginning of our second unit of study, sociological research.  The last unit we examined how sociology began as a discipline and how sociologists view people and society.  This unit we will turn our focus to how sociologists actually do sociology.   The second page of the Framework for Understanding Sociology should be a useful organizer for notes in this unit and a quick reference for deciphering sociological research going forward.

Unit 2 Soc Research will examine what sociologists research and how they conduct their research.

HW:  Read Gang Leader for a Day Introduction by Sudhir Venkatesh (due by lesson 5)

For homework, read the excerpt in the link above.  This reading is the introduction of a widely popular book called Gang Leader For A Day by Sudhir Venkatesh.  Venkatesh grew up in California and attended undergrad there.  He then went to the University of Chicago for his PhD in sociology.  Venkatesh really wants to study race and poverty and he tries various types of research to learn about race and poverty's effects on Chicagoans.  

Prereading Strategy:  As you read, think about all the ways that he tries to learn about race and poverty.  Additionally, think about the benefits and challenges of each way.

Sociological Research

To start today's lesson, please open this Common Sense Quiz and answer True or False for questions 1-15.  Use your previous knowledge or simply use common sense to guess the answers for each question.  Do not spend much time on these questions.  If you don't know the answer, go with your intuition or common sense.

Open the Google Form for this lesson and answers the questions as you go along.

1.  How many answers from the quiz did you get correct?

2.  What is one of the answers that you were surprised about?

Why is research important?

Hopefully, that quiz shows that common sense and your own experiences are not always reliable in understanding society.  For deeper understanding about why our own knowledge/experiences are unreliable, see these psychological concepts:

· overgeneralization - basing all of your understanding on a limited experience.

· selective observation/confirmation bias - seeking out only evidence that supports your opinion.

· premature closure - deciding on a conclusion and then being unable to see evidence contrary to that conclusion.

· halo effect - having a positive view of one aspect of a person or idea and that affects your view of all other aspects associated with it.

· false consensus - the tendency to overestimate how much others agree with us.

Background - The Beginning of Sociology as a Science

Auguste Comte - started as positive philosophy (aka positivism) the early 1800s, then popularized the term "sociology" (1838), the empirical study of society using scientific methods and data.  Basically, Comte was saying what knowledge can we be positive about regarding society?  In other words, what can we test scientifically about society; thus, "sociology".  

3.  Do you understand why research and the scientific method is important to sociology?

Finding Good Sources of Research

Sociological research shows up in everyday life a lot more than you may notice.  The chart below details the many places that you can seek out information: television, radio, and print media like websites, journals, magazines and newspapers.  The X-axis shows the tendency of the sources below to have a partisan bias (liberal, centrist, conservative).  And the Y-axis shows the reliability of the reporting from most in-depth to sensationalized.

4.  Examine the chart.  What is the most in-depth and nonpartisan source?

For more information, our SHS ILC has a lesson on sources here.  Here are some main points:

• There is a difference between biased news and fake news.
• Don't be fooled by the appearance of the page: a professional-looking page, a .org extension, links all might confuse you to thinking the page is not what it is.
• Read laterally - go outside the page to learn about it. These sites are reliable for lateral checking: Snopes, Sourcewatch, Wikipedia, Allsides, Factcheck
• Find the source of the article, who published it?  Who funded it?
• More news on the internet is fake than real!

The point is that our understanding of society should be empirical, unbiased and research-based.  The most reliable news/research is from academic, peer-reviewed journals.  These are journals that publish articles that have been reviewed by experts in the subject of the article.  For example, if I wanted to publish an article about sociology, other successful sociologists would review my article before it gets published.  These articles are often original research or primary sources.  We will focus on primary sources in the rest of this unit.  Before that, let's examine other sources.


Examples of sociological research in secondary sources

Often, sociological research shows up in secondary sources.  These sources explain the findings of the research without detailing the research methods and background.  Most of the chart above (and most news) is from secondary sources.  These sources will summarize bits and pieces of research based on what the source deems significant.  Be sociologically mindful about where your information about society has come from up to and until now.  Here are some other charts of news and bias:

AdFontes regularly updates a chart of media bias on their website and has an interactive chart here.

AllSides provides left - center - right coverage of various issues as well as news bias rating.

5.  Take a moment to be mindful about your understanding of society.  Where does your knowledge of current events/news come from?  List the sources where you get your news.

6.  Now examine the two links above.  Where do your sources fall in terms of bias?  How do you think that affects how you view the world?

BEING MINDFUL ABOUT MEDIA

This research from PEW shows how Americans may view the news differently based on party affiliation.

Here are examples of secondary sources that have sociology in them:

• Textbooks; for our class; Real World Sociology by Ferris and Stein. The text might seem to just be musings/opinions about society but there are 30 pages of references at the end of the book.  Here is one page showing the references for the text.
• News articles;  One example is the article, The Myth of the Two-Parent Household, from Harvard professor Christina Cross in the NY Times (2019) also available here.   

7.  What research is this article based on?  You can do your own search in the NY Times for sociology by clicking here for a Google search of "sociology" in the NYT.  

• Contexts magazine; A publication by the American Sociological Association that explains the latest research in an accessible way for students and general public to understand.  Here is the Contexts website, especially in the In Brief section   You can access Contexts by issue through the ILC page using the search by title page here.

• The Society Pages:  Website of sociology resources, especially Discoveries page.

• Journal of Contemporary Sociology, a journal of reviews.  You can access Contemporary Sociology through the ILC page using the search by title page here.

Applying your secondary source understanding

Choose one of the secondary sources bulleted above (NY Times, Contexts, Society Pages, Journal of Contemporary Sociology).  Find an article about a topic you are interested in. Then explain what research the article was based on.  Feel free to try a few sources or articles before you decide to answer the questions below.

8.  What secondary source did you choose?

9.  What was the article you read?

10.  What research was the article about?

  

Volunteering OP: GLASA

GLASA is holding its Annual Twilight 5k Run/Walk/Roll on SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11^th, and we would love your help!

 

Over 100 volunteers are needed (age 14 and up) to help with set-up, clean-up, food & drink service, course safety marshals (MOST IMPORTANT TO FILL), race registration, check-in, and race results.  No previous experience is needed – all training takes place on-site prior to volunteering.  Attached is the flyer with all the relevant information for the event including the volunteer positions available. I would appreciate your help in sharing this volunteer opportunity with your friends, family and coworkers to get all the slots filled.  Please don’t hesitate to call me if you have any questions.

 

Please visit https://www.signupgenius.com/go/9040a44aaa62bab9-20214 to sign up!

 

COVID-19 INFORMATION: GLASA is committed to protecting the health and safety of athletes, staff, volunteers and spectators. Information on the specific protocols and prevention measures that will be enforced to reduce the risk of acquiring COVID-19 will be available the week of the race. Some volunteer positions will be required to submit one of the following - proof of vaccination, prior COVID-19 infection, or negative PCR COVID-19 test within 72 hours of arrival. Anyone who cannot provide such documentation listed above will be required to take a guided self-administered COVID-19 rapid test on site when checking in to volunteer. These tests will be provided at no cost thanks to a generous donation from Abbott Laboratories. Specific information on which volunteer positions will have this required as well as the details of rapid testing will be sent out the week of the race. 

 

If you would like to participate in the Twilight 5k Run/Walk/Roll or the Children's Fun Run as a runner, please visit www.glasatwilight.org.

 

If you are interested in being a guide (running or biking), please contact Cindy Housner at chousner@glasa.org. Running guides will assist runners that are visually impaired and biking guides will assist racers in cycles, track chairs and other manual chairs.

 

Covid, Masking and Vaccines

Using Symbolic Interaction, let's think about the shared meaning among different groups of Americans regarding mask wearing and vaccinations.  There are some Americans who have created a shared meaning around the use of masks and vaccines and this shared meaning is that these things should be avoided because of some combination of the following:

• they don't work
• they are harmful for you
• the government is using them to try to control you

These tropes have been cultivated in certain segments of the media and then reinforced through institutions like families, government, employers, etc...  This reinforces the meaning that anti-masking has come to be for these people.  And, some research shows that push back against this line of thinking can sometimes cause people to cling to these misunderstood principles even tighter.  Hopefully, an honest and critical examination using sociological theory can help students understand the issue better.

"Covid only kills a tiny percentage of people, so why should I worry?"

Sometimes people will focus on the fact that you are very unlikely to die from Covid-19 because most people, especially young and healthy people survive it.  One of the biggest graphics being passed around lately to support these tropes is this:

This simple-minded trope for arguing against masks & vaccinations ignores the effects of Covid on both the healthcare system and the patients that survive.  Many of the patients who get covid will need to be hospitalized before surviving.  As hospitals fill up with covid patients, their resources and manpower are used up leaving less for everyone else.  This is one of the important reasons that the healthcare officials talk about prevention and "flattening the curve".  Sociologist and M.D., Nicholas Christakis explains the importance of preventing covid in this tweeted graphic:

Preventing covid is NOT just to prevent it from harming YOU.  It is preventing it from overwhelming the system and spreading like a wildfire.  The goal is to keep the peak of the curve below the maximum capability of the healthcare system.  See this Vox article and the graph below:

Medium explains flattening the curve and shares this graphic:



via GIPHY

Decorated Army Veteran Dies of Treatable Illness  - August 27, 2021 in the United States

Widely reported in various news outlets, from the NY Daily News, a US Army veteran who survived 2 tours in Afghanistan died in Houston because there were no resources to give him the simple treatment he needed.  Without it however, he likely went into septic shock and died. 

“Texas is f--ed,” Dr. Kakli told the Daily News by phone. “Talk to any doctor in Texas. It’s insane.”

OurWorldinData keeps track of the number of covid patients.  Here is a graph from the last week of August 2021:

Life After Covid

But another important nuance to counter the idea that so few people who get Covid-19 die from it, is that many of those who survive the disease continue to live with effects from the disease.  Covid is still a relatively new disease so doctors do not have a full understanding of it.  However, they do know that covid patients report a host of different issues after surviving the disease.  One issue that seems apparent is that Covid-19 affects the body's ability to get enough oxygen.  Because oxygen is used throughout the body, there can be numerous effects from oxygen depletion including different organs like brain, heart, kidney and lungs which all may be damaged due to covid.  And, the recovery may entail learning to walk again, regaining strength, learning to use the stairs again and learning to think clearly.  All of this recovery might mean taking time off work, finding someone to care for the patient as they recover at home, walking around connected to an oxygen machine because you need supplemental oxygen, rearranging furniture at home so the patient doesn't trip on anything and cause a new injury, etc... The point is that yes, you are not likely to die, but you are also gambling with your long-term quality of life and the long-term quality of life for all of those you come into contact with.  

Time Magazine explains the most recent study (8/2021) of Long Covid here: 

Among those hospitalized for COVID-19, 68% reported at least one continued, COVID-19-related symptom six months after their first symptoms appeared. While this percentage decreased by the 12-month mark, it remained relatively high, at 49%. And overall, patients who had been hospitalized for COVID-19 self-reported being in poorer health and having lower quality of life—including mobility issues— compared to controls.  

 

The most common symptom patients reported 12 months later was fatigue or muscle weakness; other issues included sleep disturbances, changes in taste and smell, dizziness, headache and shortness of breath. Certain symptoms were actually worse at the 12-month mark than they were earlier on in the study: the proportion of patients reporting breathing problems increased slightly, from 26% to 30%, from six months to a year following their first symptoms. The patients also filled out questionnaires about their mental health, and while 23% reported feeling anxious or depressed six months after their first symptoms appeared, 30% did so at a year.

For more on the harrowing experience of surviving Covid, see this post about my own experience.

The third reason why death from Covid should not be the only matter of concern is that the more that covid spreads, the higher likelihood that it will mutate and create new and more dangerous variations. Every time a virus reproduces, it runs the possibility of mutating.  The more we allow it to do so, the greater likelihood that it becomes more deadly or resistant to the vaccinations.

If you can understand why we should be concerned about Covid spreading even if it doesn't result in death, then you can understand that it might be important to prevent it from spreading.  The 2 biggest tools that we have to prevent the spread are vaccines and masks, both of which have taken on symbolic meaning that has nothing to do with the actual science but instead has to do with one's political identity.  Here is a critical and nuanced explanation of vaccines followed by masks.

Vaccines

The first part that is interesting to me is the social construction and sociological imagination around opposition to vaccines.  The history of vaccines goes back to the American Revolution when George Washington ordered his troops to get inoculated from small pox.  He was losing more troops to small pox than to the British and so, he ordered his troops to put their country first and get vaccinated.  Although vaccinations were a patriotic duty demanded by the general, they were not without controversy.  However, vaccine science was as young as the new country was back then.  Despite the infancy of the science, vaccines were required in some schools as early as 1809!  Since then, vaccine science has come a long way.  And for decades, schools have been requiring at least 5 vaccinations!  Despite these truths, in 2021 after more than two centuries of research and more than 500,000 Americans have died of covid, there is a vehement opposition to vaccines.  Why now? The development of this particular vaccine occurred within a particularly hyper-partisan time when institutions sought ideological opposition to political opponents regardless of truth or consequences.  These institutions then give credence to these ideas simply because they are entrenched institutions in American society.  Furthermore, the hyper-partisanship has filtered down to an individual level in which individuals embrace their party affiliation and actively seek out oppositional ideas. There is shared meaning among these individual that suddenly see the covid vaccine as part of a larger representation of party affiliation.  

Masks

Besides anti-vaccination, opposition to mask wearing is also interesting using the social construction of reality and sociological imagination.  It is notable that the wearing of masks has been criticized only during this current political atmosphere and even then, it is only the wearing of masks under attack.   The medical community has been promoting the use of masks in the prevention of infection for decades.  Doctors, nurses and healthcare workers have all worn masks around at-risk people for decades to prevent infection from spreading.  This has never been opposed before.  But suddenly this decades-old practice is being called into question, now, at this particular moment.  And, the specific charge of masks taking away freedom is interesting to me too.  For those who share the belief that masking means taking away freedom, why do they

 

not question the practice of wearing clothing?  No shirt, no shoes, no service has been a popular mantra for restaurants and stores for decades.  And swimming pools have required swim caps and kitchens have required hairnets for decades.  Why are masks drawing the line?  Ironically, the phrase No shirt, no shoes, no service was also a social construction created for similar political reasons!  And the idea doesn't stop at clothing.  There are myriad restrictions placed on everyday life such as:  wear a seatbelt, smoke outside away from the entrance, follow the speed limit, stop for red lights, pay taxes, follow building codes, label food expiration dates, etc... 

Most of these restrictions are designed to keep the public safe.  So why are masks being questioned?  Using the ideas of sociological imagination and social construction of reality, we can see that opposition to masking and vaccines has only been opposed at this time and in this specific way.  The meaning of opposing these has been created for both political and economic expediency by institutions, like Republicans and Fox News seeking to find political opposition to the Biden Administration.  These are widely followed institutions that, because they are so enmeshed in society, hold sway over the meaning of masks.  And that social meaning has become reified by institutions and people that parrot the tropes they have heard recently around masks and vaccines.

Examining the Research Critically

Critical examination of research is an important aspect of sociology.  That means thinking with nuance and complexity and asking questions.   Too many Americans do not engage in a critical understanding of the research behind mask wearing.  And not only is the first research below sociological, it confirms the importance of social perception in the prevention of disease spread.

From Stella Quah, a sociologist at the University of Singapore

In this research about a 2006 outbreak of a SARS virus, she found that public perception matters and how the public is educated plays a role in minimizing the risk.

A comparative analysis of the 2002-2003 infectious disease outbreak, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and the HIV/AIDS epidemic that has affected the world over the past two decades reveals the significant role of socio-cultural beliefs and attitudes in the shaping of people's lifestyles and approaches to the control and prevention of epidemics. The main research question is: what can we learn from the SARS experience about effective prevention of HIV/AIDS? The sources of data include population figures on the development of these epidemics and findings from two sociological studies of representative samples of Singapore's multi-ethnic population. The comparative study illustrates the impact of cultural beliefs and attitudes in shaping the public image of these two different infectious diseases; the relevance of public image of the disease for effective prevention and control of epidemics.

Masks and O2 Levels

Some critics ask, "How do we know that masks are not harmful?  Do they make you breathe in your own CO2?"

Masks can sometimes be uncomfortable and hot and they might even prevent you from getting a deep breath.  However, there is a simple way to see that the mask is not hurting your ability to respirate enough oxygen.  Get a small device called a pulse oximeter that is available at any pharmacy or at any doctor's office.  It measures how much oxygen is getting into you.  The average person should be above 92 probably closer to 100. A simple experiment can show that masking does not prevent you from getting enough oxygen.  Simply put on the device and get your O2 level.  Then, with a mask on, run around or do jumping jacks and take your : level again.  You will see a similar O2 level.  

Pulseox devices are useful because if a person gets Covid-19 then you may see a drop in O2 levels even before you feel gravely ill. When your pulseox level is no longer getting to 90, you may need to get to the hospital for supplemental O2.

Masks and Germs
Another simple-minded rhetorical criticism of masks is that if you analyze masks you will find that they are dirty including germs like bacteria and pneumonia. Yes! That is because they are working! If the germs are on the outside it is because the mask prevented you from breathing in the germs.  Conversely, if the germs are on the inside, then the mask prevented you from breathing out the germs into the air around you! Additionally, this is why there are recommended guidelines for how you take the mask on and off and how you touch it. And if you want to be extra cautious, change your mask often. 

Efficacy of Masks

Some people claim that there is no evidence of masks working or that the guidelines have changed.  

First of all, the guidelines have changed because this is a new virus and researchers are learning about it every day and as it evolves.  For examples, researchers now know that it is a much more airborne virus than at first.  This means it is more likely to be spread by being breathed in.  Secondly, there was a time at the onset of the virus when the CDC in general and Dr. Fauci in particular were afraid that there was not enough medical grade masks (N95).  That is why he said that people should wear a mask but not necessarily an N95 mask.  We are beyond that point.  However, the evidence for why masks work must be culled and critically analyzed because there are many variables:  what kind of mask?  how is it being worn?  where is the location of mask wearing occurring - indoors?  outdoors? in a crowded space? how long was the mask wearer in that space? what is the level of community spread in this location?  All of these questions are important and it is difficult to measure and duplicate all of them.  However, there is much evidence that points to the efficacy of mask wearing.

Studying Mask Wearing is difficult but still conclusive

There is much evidence that masks help but again, you must understand the evidence clearly with complexity and nuance.

From Nature.com this article explains the difficulty in examining "mask-wearing". Again the importance of nuance in that phrase "mask wearing:" Who is wearing the mask? What kind of mask? How are they wearing it? What is the circumstances they are wearing it in? How much covid is present in the population? From the the article, despite these important questions that bring context to understanding what one means by "mask wearing,"

science supports using masks, with recent studies suggesting that they could save lives in different ways: research shows that they cut down the chances of both transmitting and catching the coronavirus, and some studies hint that masks might reduce the severity of infection if people do contract the disease. But being more definitive about how well they work or when to use them gets complicated.

This 2020 news report from NPR also explains that, 

most of the studies in the analysis looked at face mask use in health care, not community, settings. And they were observational, not the gold standard of science, a randomized controlled trial, which would be "very unethical in a pandemic," says Jeffrey Shaman, an epidemiologist at Columbia University. Still, he says the fact that there is a benefit from masks is clear.

Controlled settings show mask efficacy

So the above article explains that it is difficult to measure "mask wearing" generally, but this research shows that in a controlled setting of a hospital, with a regulated type of mask, it was indeed effective.

community mask use by well people could be beneficial, particularly for COVID-19, where transmission may be pre-symptomatic. The studies of masks as source control also suggest a benefit, and may be important during the COVID-19 pandemic in universal community face mask use as well as in health care settings. Trials in healthcare workers support the use of respirators continuously during a shift. This may prevent health worker infections and deaths from COVID-19, as aerosolisation in the hospital setting has been documented.

Uncontrolled evidence

This article explains the results of a study of an outbreak in California where masking is not required and a teacher spread Covid to half of his class.  From the article, 

Among the teacher’s 24 students, 22 were tested and 12 tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the report, written by county health officials and experts with UC Berkeley, UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz.

Four parents of children at the school were later infected in the outbreak, which involved the Delta variant, according to the report. Of the infected parents, one was unvaccinated, while three were vaccinated. Vaccinated parents in the outbreak experienced symptoms including fever, chills, cough, headache and loss of smell.

“This outbreak of COVID-19 that originated with an unvaccinated teacher highlights the importance of vaccinating school staff members who are in close indoor contact with children ineligible for vaccination,” the authors of the report wrote. “The outbreak’s attack rate highlights the Delta variant’s increased transmissibility and potential for rapid spread, especially in unvaccinated populations such as schoolchildren too young for vaccination.”

The scientists who wrote the report said the results show why it is so important that universal masking inside schools is widely recommended; in California, masking is required in indoor school settings.

Healthcare experts agree and provide myriad evidence that masks work

Finally the University of San Francisco provides this explanation of how masks work and the evidence supporting their efficacy.  From the explanation, 

There are several strands of evidence supporting the efficacy of masks.

One category of evidence comes from laboratory studies of respiratory droplets and the ability of various masks to block them. 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. Another study of people who had influenza or the common cold found that wearing a surgical mask significantly reduced the amount of these respiratory viruses emitted in droplets and aerosols.

But the strongest evidence in favor of masks come from studies of real-world scenarios. “The most important thing are the epidemiologic data,” said Rutherford. Because it would be unethical to assign people to not wear a mask during a pandemic, the epidemiological evidence has come from so-called “experiments of nature.”

A recent study published in Health Affairs, for example, compared the COVID-19 growth rate before and after mask mandates in 15 states and the District of Columbia. It found that mask mandates led to a slowdown in daily COVID-19 growth rate, which became more apparent over time. The first five days after a mandate, the daily growth rate slowed by 0.9 percentage-points compared to the five days prior to the mandate; at three weeks, the daily growth rate had slowed by 2 percentage-points.

 

University of North Carolina sociology professor and MD, Zeynap Tufekci, reviews the literature (Jan 2021)  around mask wearing and develops a framework for examining it as well as makes recommendations here.  In short,

• The preponderance of evidence indicates that mask wearing reduces transmissibility 
• Public mask wearing is most effective at reducing spread of the virus when compliance is high. 
• We recommend mask wearing by infectious people (“source control”) 
• We recommend that public officials and governments strongly encourage the use of widespread face masks in public, including the use of appropriate regulation.

From JohnsHopkins, Proper Mask Wearing Matters,

Anytime you are wearing a mask, make sure:

It is worn consistently and appropriately. A mask that is frequently pulled down to breathe or talk, or is worn under the nose, is not effective.

The mask conforms to your face without gaps — it is important that most of the air you breathe in and out flows through the mask rather than around the mask through gaps at the sides, top or bottom.

It is made from several layers of tightly woven fabric in order to be an effective filter.

The mask has a flexible nose bridge to conform to the face and prevent fogging of eyeglasses.

It stays in place during talking and moving, so it can be worn without slipping and so it does not require you to touch it frequently.

The mask is comfortable enough to wear without adjusting it for the amount of time you need to keep it on.

Following current mask-wearing guidelines is still important as we race to stop viral transmission and get everyone vaccinated before more variants of the virus emerge and threaten the progress we have made.

"But masks don't guarantee prevention..."

A lot of what is recommended is not 100% but very few issues are zero sum or black and white.

Masking and vaccines limit but does not eliminate the likelihood of getting ill from covid.  There are lots of ways that we try to limit our risk - going inside because of risk of lightning, cooking raw meat, going to the basement during tornado warnings.  None of these are a 100% protection, but they limit the risk.  Masking is similar.  And of course, how you mask matters.  Wearing the right mask in the correct way in the right situations all matter.    This graphic from the Washington Post explains the different levels of protection:

Instant Covid's Gonna' Get You

And in a twist of irony, a leader of the TExas anti-mask movement died from Covid.  From The Hill:

The leader of an anti-mask movement in Texas has died from COVID-19.

Caleb Wallace, 30, who created the San Angelo Freedom Defenders, a group that held a rally to combat "COVID-19 tyranny," died after spending more than a month in the hospital, according to a message posted by his wife, Jessica Wallace, on a GoFundMe page to raise money to cover his hospital bills.  He initially refused to go to the hospital and get tested for the virus, instead opting to take ivermectin — an anti-parasite medication used mostly in livestock that the Food and Drug Administration recently urged people not to take to treat COVID-19 — along with high doses of Vitamin C, zinc aspirin and an inhaler.

This final anecdote helps to reinforce the shared meaning around masking and covid.  People are willing to treat themselves with a horse medication but not FDA-approved, doctor-recommended masking and vaccinations.  

REMINDER:

You can still be a conservative or vote republican, but be critical of what you believe.  Especially,

• Wear a mask properly.
• Stay 3 feet apart and honor the SHS seating.
• Tell a teacher or counselor if you are uncomfortable.