After months of sacrifice, economic and mental stress, and more than 120,000 deaths, this infection is attacking again, burning like a wildfire across the American sunbelt.
It sometimes seems that all of our precautions were for naught.
While the virus is waning in some states–thankfully here in New England–it’s waxing in places such as Florida and Texas, where politicians downplayed its seriousness. The new outbreaks even caused Vice-President Mike Pence to cancel campaign rallies in Arizona and Florida.
It’s sad enough that everything from football to Allie’s Doughnuts has been suffused with the red-blue state culture wars. Now we’re faced with the national split over whether to social distance and wear masks.
Closer to home, Rhode Island and harder-hit Massachusetts have done a fair job in containment. Both Gov. Gina Raimondo, the Rhode Island Democrat, and Charlie Baker, the Massachusetts Republican, have been relentless in pushing precaution, requiring masks and embracing social distancing.
It’s caused a bit of a backlash, even in our cobalt blue states. In Rhode Island, the town council in rural Burrillville voted last week to declare the community a “First Amendment Sanctuary.” The sleepy town is nestled in the northwest corner of the state, where social distancing is a way of life. But the town’s leaders approved a measure lashing out at Raimondo’s executive orders, saying they have created “emotional, spiritual and financial” pain.
Too many stage their own protest by failing to wear masks at the beach or at social gatherings.
The governor didn’t help herself when she showed up without a mask at a Black Lives Matter protest that attracted thousands to the Statehouse. She quickly apologized.
Some politicians have made fools of themselves. The governors of Florida and Texas scoffed at the stay at home precautions and reopened their states prematurely. Now their states are setting daily records of infections.
President Trump has set a childish example by refusing to wear a mask and holding rallies in such virus hotbeds as Arizona and Oklahoma. He has also cut spending on testing for reasons that make no medical sense and is pushing for the repeal of Obamacare.
The Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper did an enlightening survey last week. It found that in the 11 states that require mask-wearing in public, Covid 19 cases have dropped by more than 25 percent over the past two weeks. But in the 16 states that recommend but don’t mandate masks, virus cases have jumped by 84 percent.
Ok, we’re all antsy about home confinement. In New England, that’s particularly the case as vacation season arrives and surf and clam shacks beckon. But we need to stop the phony talk of constitutional freedoms.
The First Amendment isn’t absolute. You can’t scream fire in a crowded theater or spread falsehoods about private citizens.
Your chances of getting infected are not just based on your actions but on the behaviors of others. Your freedom to do as you please ends when your refusal to wear a mask jeopardizes the health of the rest of us. You don’t have to have symptoms to transmit the virus.
We don’t have a vaccine or a reliable treatment yet.
At this point, it doesn’t matter where the virus originated. It’s here.
Opening the economy too early didn’t make the virus go away and didn’t cure joblessness. In states that have tossed caution to the wind, the data shows that younger adults are being infected. Opening up only to shut down a few weeks later isn’t a recipe for economic recovery.
Covid 19 isn’t going away because you’re sick of it.
