A ten year old Iowa boy who suffers from asthma is joining the "Mask up Iowa" initiative and encouraging others to wear masks.
“I’m Quinn and I have asthma. I wear a mask because I know what it’s like to not be able to breathe very well,” Quinn Robertson said in a video he made for the initiative.
“I just wanted to put the word out there and have people wear a mask because people wearing a mask, it just helps everyone,” Quinn tells KCRG-TV 9.
Quinn says even though he suffers from asthma that doesn’t stop him from wearing a mask. “It’s just basically when you get used to it and wear it for one or two minutes, it just feels like normal breathing."
Medical experts say there are some people who shouldn’t wear masks. “The most important people who should not be wearing masks are people less than 2 years old or for one reason or another aren’t able to remove the mask if they have problems breathing,” Doctor Melanie Wellington, Associate Epidemiologist with the University of Iowa and Infectious Disease Specialist tells KCRG-TV 9.
Wellington says in that case, there are face shields. “For most people who find breathing through a mask uncomfortable because of breathing problems, it’s usually because the mask changes the amount of force it takes to move the air in and out, so if you wear a face shield then the force to move the air in and out is the same,” she says.