Please let’s all mask up to fight this War on COVID

I HAVE BEEN walking daily in our neighborhood for decades, including the last 11 months with a mask. I have many of the preconditions we have been warned about regularly, most as a result of heavy exposure to Agent Orange in the Vietnam War.

Only about ¾ of the people I see are wearing masks. I was puzzled at the start of the pandemic at some people’s resistance to what appears to me just good common sense. Have these people never been in a hospital and observed the masked health professionals? Have they never seen M.A.S.H. or some other doctor movie on TV where the operating or delivery room standard operating procedure is for everyone to be masked? Are they not masked because they believe this is a hoax or Democratic conspiracy? No, many are surely un-masked because their all-knowing cult leader said they weren’t necessary and up to individual choice.

Perhaps it might help bring some anti-maskers into the fold of those of us practicing proven preventive measures in disease mitigation if we reframed this from being other than a health issue. Surely, anti-maskers must like the sound of war on different enemies other than hostile countries — like the War on Drugs and the War on Terror. Why not call this “The War on COVID?” Unlike some previous conflicts, we can really win this war, but only with everyone doing their part. Uncle Sam needs you to wear a mask! CHARLES (CHUCK) MARKEN

Albuquerque