MASK UP TO PROTECT YOUR NEIGHBORS
It’s a lovely day in New Zealand, a nation where you can count the number of active COVID-19 cases on your hand … as a child would. People in New Zealand can attend parties, see a movie, go to sporting events, all because they got their infection rate under control.
While some would throw their hands to the sky and treat this like an unsolvable mystery, it’s no such thing. New Zealand got its infection rates under control because when health and elected officials gave instructions, most people followed them.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told her citizens to wear masks and socially distance. They did exactly that. New Zealand ate its vegetables. Now it can have dessert. That is, it can go back to being fairly normal.
Life is different in the States. This is a nation where polling shows three out of four people support wearing masks when social distancing is difficult. But those people are not the problem. It’s the other one in four.
Almost all doctors who are taken seriously, most responsible elected officials, and even all the scientists in the world cannot change the minds of some.
To some of these folks, not even a small favor should be asked of them. This is why America is struggling with reopening schools. This is why Americans may not have high school or college football come September. A sizable portion of our society is unable to make the required sacrifice.
Some retailers, like Walmart, initially announced that customers who refused to wear a mask would be turned away.
But viral video after viral video of customers freaking out, screaming at the top of their lungs, and in some cases violently accosting Walmart’s associates, has yielded no consequences at all.
Walmart will no longer try to enforce its mask policy, the company said, because it’s not safe to do so. Serenah McKay wrote about it in the paper: “Walmart Inc. and other retailers won’t enforce their face mask policies for shoppers out of concern that doing so could anger customers and endanger employees. Retailers like Walmart walk a fine line these days between trying to protect customers and employees from exposure to the coronavirus and potentially dangerous confrontations.”
This is where American society finds itself. Infection numbers continue to rise each day, as do the number of deaths from COVID-19. And there’s still a subset of Americans who refuse to believe in the necessity of masks until they’re hospitalized, or worse.
America won’t beat this virus until a vaccine is ready. But medical professionals like Dr. Anthony Fauci have already warned if enough Americans refuse to get the vaccine, it’s not going to help much.
The misconception that many Americans possess is a belief in infallible and limitless freedom from responsibility.
During cases of extreme emergency, our government does have the ability to make certain mandates and even infringe on a liberty or two. Crack open a history book. Look up an infamous cook by the name of Mary Mallon. Where public health is concerned, the government can impose certain guidelines. How else would you shut down a restaurant where the staff was caught storing food and cleaning supplies in the same corner?
People who live in a truly free country are burdened with the responsibility of being smart enough to maintain it. Like everything else nowadays, mask wearing has been politicized. More’s the pity.
This isn’t a joking matter. America can’t limp along anymore with just three out of four people agreeing to wear masks. That makes us the squeaky cart in Walmart with three functioning wheels. It makes grocery shopping deadly.
The bill always comes due. Sometimes it’s too much to pay.