When I finally decided to start a newsletter, my first post was going to be about face masks. I have rewritten it at least three times, walked away from it and wrote another letter that was posted last week. Here I am again trying to make sense of this subject. I’m at least a little encouraged that the tone of face mask discussions are changing. There is more and more bipartisan support for their wear. So I’m going to make a couple of points and move on to another subject next week … I hope.
Several weeks ago, I saw this image posted on Facebook.
The person who posted the image is convinced that COVID-19 is a big hoax, based on my interpretation of their timeline. They copied and pasted the image from someone else’s timeline. It wasn’t an original thought. Responses were typical and I’m sure it was reposted many more times.
I’m not sure that it’s a bad thing if we’re all conditioned to be more health conscious. I spent two years in Japan and visited South Korea several times. Face masks are very common there. In their culture, everyone has been conditioned to wear a mask if you don’t feel well and have to go out in public. Experts agree that the wear of face masks in Japan and South Korea prevented a spike in COVID-19 cases and deaths there.
It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve been “conditioned” to accept a new normal. Seatbelt wear and smoking in public places are two things that come to mind. Seatbelts were heavily debated. In spite of research to the contrary, many claimed that seatbelt wear could result in internal injuries and prevent rapid escape from a burning car. And there was the argument that an individual’s seatbelt use should be a personal, rather than legal decision since the life risked is their own. (I guess those who argued that point never considered that an unbuckled person could be ejected and thrown into an innocent bystander, possibly killing them.) In 1961, Wisconsin became the first state to require seatbelts in the front seats of all cars built after 1962. Since then, every state has adopted seatbelt laws and seatbelt use was as high as 91% according to a 2017 study. Seatbelts have been credited with reducing serious automobile-crash injuries and deaths by 50%. Not a bad thing, right? Clicking my seatbelt is an unconscious action. I guess I’ve been “conditioned”.
As Wisconsin was enacting the first seatbelt laws, experts wrote a letter to President Kennedy that outlined the increasing evidence that smoking is a health-hazard and urged him to establish a commission to address the problem. While the Federal Government has not attempted to enact any nationwide smoking bans, many states and municipalities have. As of 2018, twenty-six states have enacted statewide bans on smoking in enclosed workplaces, including bars and restaurants. At least 12 other states have smoking bans with exceptions for various establishments and workplaces. According to the CDC, exposure to secondhand smoke has dropped in recent years. During 1988 - 1991, almost 90% of nonsmokers showed measurable signs of exposure to secondhand smoke. Between 2011-2012 measurable signs dropped to 25% of nonsmokers. Progress? Could it be that our society has already been “conditioned” to accept smoking bans? It’s been a while since I heard of an organized protest of smoking bans. Maybe I missed them.
As I try to finish this post, new cases of COVID-19 topped 50,000 in a single day with no signs of letting up. (Well, there is one person who thinks it’s letting up, but I won’t go there.) The EU has excluded the US on their list of countries that will be allowed to conduct non-essential travel to EU destinations beginning in July. Does that bother anyone? I know not everyone just retired planning to travel as I did, but I’ll get over that. But I find it really embarrassing that the United States joins Brazil, India, and Russia as the only countries excluded from their safe list.
There’s a scene that is playing itself out all over this country. The elderly and those with underlying conditions, who have to go out in public for essentials are completely disrespected. Every time I go in a grocery store, I see someone crowding an elderly person who is wearing their mask and doing what they can to social distance. Sometimes it seems to be intentional. It’s shameful. Even as some locations have enacted mandatory mask ordinances, there are many who refuse.
Many feel that being required to wear a mask is a violation of their rights. It’s not, but I’m not going to get into that. (There’s a link in the notes if you are interested, and a simple internet search will yield many more.) If you go to the grocery store without wearing a mask and don’t practice social distancing, could you be violating the rights of the elderly and people with underlying conditions by denying them the right to feel safe when they have to go out for essentials? The change in attitudes about seatbelts and secondhand smoke took many years. We don’t have many years to change attitudes about face masks. We all want to get back to normal. We’re all in this together. Wear a mask.
That’s it, from where I sit.
Notes
Photo: screenshot from Facebook by author
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/25/health/face-mask-guidance-covid-19/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/06/world/asia/japan-coronavirus-masks.html
https://www.wpr.org/surprisingly-controversial-history-seat-belts
https://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/seatbelts/facts.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_smoking_bans_in_the_United_States
https://www.lung.org/research/sotc/tobacco-timeline
https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/secondhand_smoke/general_facts/index.htm
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/07/02/coronavirus-live-updates-us/
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/505487-trump-maintains-coronavirus-will-just-disappear-at-some-point
https://www.foxnews.com/world/us-off-european-union-safe-list-travel
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/30/europe/european-union-travel-us-graphic-intl/index.html
https://www.12news.com/article/news/companies-requiring-a-mask-constitutional-or-no/75-885cfc4f-6f2e-4048-90a1-59458372e065
Excellent thought process and quality written. Thank you for sharing. I totally agree with you.