Mask Up Utah, Endure to the End
– By Howard Sierer –
This pandemic is wearing on most of us. We’re developing coronavirus fatigue and that can be dangerous.
Young people across the country increasingly are ignoring the social distancing guidelines that weigh heavily on their natural inclinations to socialize and “get on with life.” As a result, the average age of those contracting COVID-19 is dropping.
Older people are not exempt even though they often have more control over their interactions with others. With restaurant socializing restricted, older people have compensated with more in-home gatherings. For seniors, the lure of getting together with family, especially with grandchildren, can be compelling.
The upshot: this fall’s dramatic upturn in COVID-19 cases.
The fact that death rates per infection are dropping due to increasingly effective treatments is small consolation for those with severe cases or to the families of those who succumb.
At current infection rates, another 10 million people or more could be infected by the end of January on top of the cumulative 13 million infected as of late November. We’re straining ICU capacity and more importantly, we’re placing near-impossible demands on our health care professionals.
Yet for most of us, COVID-19 is a disease that we choose to share. Keep an appropriate distance from other human beings and you will not catch it or spread it. To the extent we choose or are forced to do otherwise, we are exposing ourselves to a level of risk.
For almost all of us, work and getting food and other essential necessities require taking some COVID risk. And here’s where masks play a vital role in reducing that risk.
The federal Centers for Disease Control issued a scientific brief in early November explaining that wearing a face mask protects the wearer as well as those around them. Further, the benefits are greater when masks are worn consistently and correctly. An added bonus: wearing masks reduces the severity of COVID-19 for those who do get the virus.
In most situations, I tend to side with those advocating individual freedom and oppose nanny-state government control. But as more has become known about the coronavirus, I have become pro-mask: Individual freedom is superseded by masks’ proven effectiveness and clear public good.
I support Gov. Herbert’s November statewide mask mandate in stores and restaurants. He stressed the coronavirus impact on hospitals and healthcare staff, noting that with hospitals heavily loaded, those who experience heart attacks, strokes or accidents as well as those requiring surgery are also placed at risk.
Those who oppose wearing masks endanger the rest of us even if only indirectly by possibly infecting someone with whom we may subsequently come in contact.
We have plenty of laws restricting individual freedom that few oppose: traffic laws come immediately to mind. Do those asserting individual freedom likewise oppose speed limits and double yellow lines in the street as a matter of principle?
Coronavirus vaccines are coming, thanks to the international pharmaceutical industry, you know, the folks all too frequently painted as prioritizing profits instead of people. As the parade of successful vaccines continues, we all may have our choice of vaccines by this spring and summer. With widespread immunity, life can return to normal for most of us.
So, hang in there, baby, for another six to eight months. Endure to the end. Hold off on bar hopping and indoor socials with your friends. Visit the grandkids on Skype or FaceTime.
And for heaven’s sake, wear your mask!
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