On Thursday, Dr. Robert Wack, deputy health officer at the Carroll County Health Department, wrote an opinion article published by the Carroll County Times, advocating for masking this winter to help fight against COVID:

Robert Wack: Masking, testing and immunization will help fight COVID, other viruses this winter | COMMENTARY

Wack considers “masking” to be one in a set of virus preventions tools that are “proven” to work. He thinks back to the early days of the pandemic, when masking compliance in Carroll County was nearly universal, before all the “anti-masking disinformation” took hold and lead to “widespread” COVID infections.

Now with winter approaching again, Wack recommends that anyone who has been exposed to COVID wear a mask around others out of a sense of “common courtesy”, because, simply put, “masks work”.

It is no longer just about COVID either, he explains. In fact so far this winter, it has been influenza and RSV that are surging, the latter of which is especially dangerous for children and is thus stressing pediatric care units in particular. As for why flu and RSV might be up this year relative to prior years, it is probably just an “unfortunate coincidence”, Wack concludes, despite all the misinformation on the subject suggesting otherwise.

As for COVID, Wack worries that the new sub-variants, including BQ.1, BQ.1.1, BA.4.6, BF.7, and XBB, could be even more contagious than all the last ones. And what if these new sub-variants evade vaccine protection? Regardless, he recommends in one capacity or another, getting a booster shot and a flu shot, social distancing, eating at restaurants with spaced out seating, shopping in buildings with high ceilings, and of course, masking.

Wack also makes an indirect prescription to once again mask children, clarifying in the first sentence of his article that the ones getting sick right now are “a lot of kids”. Yes, it is the pediatric units specifically that are being overwhelmed, he confirms. Then merely two lines later, he is calling masks a proven tool. Even if he is reluctant to complete his argument out loud, clearly the suggestion is that masking kids, along with endless testing and immunizing, is the solution in order.

Winter masking and all the rest would become just another seasonal staple, like spring cleaning and summer vacationing. After Halloween and before Thanksgiving comes masking season, lasting through to spring. And so it would be forever.

All of this messaging fairly constitutes fear-mongering, to say nothing of an insensitivity towards kids who’ve been damaged irrevocably from masking and mask-culture on the whole, suffering under learning loss, depression, and obesity at rates previously unseen.

When the Carroll County Times posted Wack’s article to Facebook, progressive Board of Education candidate and mask hawk Amanda Jozkowski “liked” it. And though a like is not always an endorsement, in this case the shoe fits.

Wack’s position, deputy health officer, had previously been part time, but was made full time in 2021. His annual salary is $222,570. A “renaissance man” as the Carroll County Library once called him, Wack is a doctor, author, and former nonprofit executive who was Carroll Magazine’s person of the year in 2014.