The coronavirus has brought discomfort and a call to change of our everyday normalities with mask mandates. While battling to keep the country safe, controversy has arisen that mask mandates would be taking away one’s freedom instead of being seen as a practice of our country’s social contract.

This whole mask mandate controversy has become political, and it shouldn’t have as wearing masks helps save lives. Science has proven that masks help contain the virus.

“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,” web and science writer Nina Bai said.

This is only one piece of evidence that explains just how important wearing masks truly is. By wearing masks, people are not only keeping themselves safe, but also the majority of the population.

If people would follow mask mandates, the government could potentially slow down the number of cases and death rates would decrease. With the thought of saving American lives in mind, masks should be required. Like the necessity of wearing a helmet in football, masks are a no brainer during this global pandemic.

The idea of mask mandates falls right into line with this belief of the social contract. The government should put a country-wide mask mandate in order to contain the vicious virus so as to protect the people of America. The U.S. has over 24.1 million COVID-19 cases and over 400k deaths. With this rate increasing each day, our U.S. leaders need to get a handle on this depressing pandemic by pursuing a mask mandate. We as citizens should follow such a mandate based on the basic belief of our American government.