This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, first appeared on BrooklynReporter.com, the Home Reporter and Spectator dated July 10, 2020
Wear a mask. It is a simple ask. It is not a huge inconvenience or an infringement on anyone’s rights. It is simply a scientifically proven method, available to all of us, that greatly reduces the risk of transmitting COVID-19 in public.
Somehow, in 2020, where many have decided that science is subjective, wearing a face covering has become a political debate. A recent Pew Research poll found that 76 percent of Democrats had been wearing a face covering while in stores or other businesses, while only 53 percent of Republicans said they had.
Nobody has a right to walk freely through a store with their face uncovered, just like nobody can declare that refusing to wear a seatbelt in their own vehicle is their right. Government is permitted to institute requirements for the preservation of public health.
Refusing to wear a face covering is even more important because not doing so infringes upon other’s rights. Masks have been shown by various studies to reduce the possibility of transmission by as much as 85 percent. Covering your mouth and nose when in public is less about keeping you safe and more about protecting others from you, should you become a coronavirus carrier. It is the considerate thing to do for your fellow community members.
Many of the same people who frequently talk about how they long for the good old days of the 1940s, when Americans sacrificed for years through a world war, have decided that after four months of social limitations, they are done, and that wearing a face covering in public is too much of an imposition for them. You do not truly respect the Greatest Generation if you cannot be bothered to take simple steps that will help keep them from dying from this virus.
Those who often complain about people they label as “takers,” who they feel are too lazy to better their financial situation and contribute more to the economy, are overwhelmingly the same people who are too lazy to wear a piece of fabric over their face when outside of their home, which in turn would do more to help the economy reopen than any other step we could collectively take as a society.
“…if groups of maskless people continue to crowd together in bars and cafes regularly, the virus will spread and the thought of other reopenings, like in-person school instruction in the fall, will become impossible to consider.”
But that is just it; there is no desire to do anything collectively as a society for the good of all of us. For far too many, there is only a self-centered approach that will ultimately undo the progress we have made in this pandemic.
As many states that had never implemented face covering requirements and ended their shutdowns early are now seeing steep rises in cases and hospitalizations, more and more of them are now being forced to institute mask mandates and roll back their reopenings. After countless scenes of restaurants and diners ignoring the requirements for phase two limited openings, the next phase of indoor dining in New York will have to wait longer.
This four-month lockdown has been incredibly difficult, but we need to continue to think about the big picture. We have all been dealing with this for months and the weather is getting nicer, but if groups of maskless people continue to crowd together in bars and cafes regularly, the virus will spread and the thought of other reopenings, like in-person school instruction in the fall, will become impossible to consider.
It is not surprising that the simple and effective precaution of wearing a mask has been politicized when the president not only refuses to wear one but holds rallies where thousands of people gather closely indoors with no face covering requirement. Besides choosing not to wear a mask himself, he has mocked reporters and his opponent in the upcoming election for covering their faces. He is ridiculing people for doing what his own public health officials are imploring all Americans to do.
If everyone would be diligent in covering their face in public, we would be able to continue to move ahead with reopening. If that is too much of an ask for people, we will be facing more of what we had hoped we had put behind us.
