Earlier this week, Elizabeth T Jacobs, a cancer and chronic disease epidemiologist at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and the University of Arizona Cancer Centre, lashed out on Twitter at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the national public health agency of the United States, for its new “mask guidance”. The CDC had unveiled updated COVID-19 guidelines for masking, based on three metrics—the number of new COVID-19 cases in an area, the share of hospital beds being used, and hospital admissions. Jacobs argued that she was lucky that she could afford an RTPCR test that allowed her to put some mitigation in place so as not to infect others.. “But there are so many who are not. These are the people that the government wants us to forget. I refuse to do so,” she tweeted. 

It’s a sentiment shared by many health experts across the globe. Dr Rajeev Jayadevan, co-chairman, National IMA COVID Task Force, being among them. In an interview with mid-day, he says that “freedom from COVID” is a long way off, and explains why masking is important to ensure that seniors in the country are protected from future infections.