Wearing masks: How we can be part of the solution, rather than the problem
If you are a business owner in North Central Washington and are not requiring your employees to wear masks during working hours, you are actively undermining the reopening of our economy during the coronavirus epidemic and putting your customers at unnecessary risk.
If you are an individual who is refusing to wear a mask in public places (and don’t have a legitimate reason for doing so), you too are actively undermining the reopening of our economy and putting other people that you come into contact with at risk.
I hope that those of you who are still in the “you can’t tell me what to do” stage in terms of the risks of the virus and the effectiveness of masks, will consider taking the simple social distancing steps and wear a mask in public. It is the greatest act of kindness and consideration for others to sacrifice your comfort for others.
Our ability to open the economy is dependent upon all of our actions. We are, to a great degree, in control of our destiny. And while it is heartening that we are seeing more masks being used in our communities, we have a long way to go.
If transmission rates rise and the state Department of Health has no choice but to further restrict commerce, it will be our own fault. So, we have a choice to be part of the problem or part of the solution. It’s as simple as that.
Dr. John Wiesman, the Secretary of Health for the state, has made it clear that our reopening is dependent upon controlling this virus. I was chatting with Dr. Peter Rutherford of Confluence Health and asked him why our valley has done better than Yakima County in terms of infections. He pointed to two factors: Some good efforts locally early on and a hell of a lot of luck.
So, we’ve mostly been lucky and we can’t count on that as a strategy going forward.
If you are a business owner in North Central Washington and are not requiring your employees to wear masks during working hours, you are actively undermining the reopening of our economy during the coronavirus epidemic and putting your customers at unnecessary risk.
If you are an individual who is refusing to wear a mask in public places (and don’t have a legitimate reason for doing so), you too are actively undermining the reopening of our economy and putting other people that you come into contact with at risk.
I hope that those of you who are still in the “you can’t tell me what to do” stage in terms of the risks of the virus and the effectiveness of masks, will consider taking the simple social distancing steps and wear a mask in public. It is the greatest act of kindness and consideration for others to sacrifice your comfort for others.
Our ability to open the economy is dependent upon all of our actions. We are, to a great degree, in control of our destiny. And while it is heartening that we are seeing more masks being used in our communities, we have a long way to go.
If transmission rates rise and the state Department of Health has no choice but to further restrict commerce, it will be our own fault. So, we have a choice to be part of the problem or part of the solution. It’s as simple as that.
Dr. John Wiesman, the Secretary of Health for the state, has made it clear that our reopening is dependent upon controlling this virus. I was chatting with Dr. Peter Rutherford of Confluence Health and asked him why our valley has done better than Yakima County in terms of infections. He pointed to two factors: Some good efforts locally early on and a hell of a lot of luck.
So, we’ve mostly been lucky and we can’t count on that as a strategy going forward.
This virus has unique aspects which makes controlling it extremely tricky and uncertain. Unlike the flu, it can take up to 12 days for symptoms to appear, and many cases are asymptomatic, meaning people don’t feel ill but can still pass the bug. With that lag time, everything can seem fine in terms of positive tests and yet the community can have a major outbreak brewing with virtually no inkling.
Around the country, as states reopen, the infection rates are soaring and the United States, as a result, is becoming a poster child of what not do in terms of controlling the novel coronavirus.
In the past three months, the United States has lost the equivalent of one-quarter of those who died throughout World War II. At the present rate of growth, it is anticipated that we will exceed World War II deaths by next June.
During World War II, citizens in this country made sacrifices for the men and women fighting the good fight. We planted victory gardens, we accepted rationing of goods, we bought war bonds, etc. That spirit of “we’re in this together” was the spirit of the Greatest Generation.
We must muster a spirit of self-sacrifice for the greater good once again. We must care as much about our neighbors as about ourselves.
These are hard times for our country and yet we cannot control what other states and the federal government chooses to do. What we can control is our own behavior and do the best we can to help our community through this.
If we work together and sacrifice together, we can be a model for our state and country. Or, we can follow the naysayers down the road of folding our arms and accepting the role as victims.
Every one of us gets to make that conscious choice. Is this about me and what I want or is this about us?
