BY MIKE WILSON JULY 01, 2020 12:02 PM published in Lexington Herald-Leader https://www.kentucky.com/opinion/op-ed/article243921727.html#storylink=mainstage_lead
People who don’t wear masks in public think they won’t get COVID-19, or if they do, it won’t harm them. For some, not wearing a mask is a political symbol, a way to assert group identity and feel superior to sissy liberals or whoever and however they characterize “them.” But the main purpose of a mask is NOT to protect the wearer from contracting the virus. The purpose of the mask is to prevent the asymptomatic mask wearer from spreading the virus. You “maskholes” who don’t wear masks, whether it’s because you don’t care or because it’s a smirking symbol of your politics, are killing your fellow citizens. Here’s how.
Currently, 2.5 million coronavirus cases have been diagnosed in the U.S, and 5 percent of those diagnosed died, but the actual number infected is ten times higher, or 25 million, and growing. While 80 percent or more of infected persons appear asymptomatic, each infected person likely infects 2 to 3 other persons absent stay-at-home orders or other strong protective measures. Coronavirus is far more infectious that the flu with an incubation period of up to 14 days, during which carriers can infect others.
Researchers from the University of Iowa estimate that 230,000 to 450,000 COVID-19 cases were prevented in states that required face mask use between April 8 and May 15. If 95 percent of Americans wore face masks in public it would save more than 33,000 lives by October 1. By not wearing masks at the grocery store, by attending large indoor gatherings, whether it’s a church or a bar, without masks and social distancing, you maskholes are literally murdering your fellow citizens.
Unfortunately, we have a president who mocks mask-wearers and encourages virus-spreading events. This president has transformed not wearing a mask into a political statement, the equivalent of a Trump 2020 T-shirt. Evangelical leaders who back this president have turned it into a badge of faith. And for economic reasons, states are reopening too soon the restaurants, bars, and other indoor gathering spots where people probably will not wear masks. The likely consequence will be that the contagion explodes.
Wearing a mask isn’t an issue about which reasonable people can disagree, any more than they can disagree about the law of gravity. Wearing a mask doesn’t infringe on freedom. There is no constitutional right to kill your neighbor during a pandemic. No one (or nearly no one) has a medical condition that prevents them from wearing a mask. Maskholes are simply too selfish to care about others.
It is undisputed that wearing a mask is the most important step we can take to limit the spread of coronavirus. If you worry about the economy, and this virus has damaged it big time, containing the virus until a vaccine or effective treatments are created is the only thing that makes sense. To do that, we need to wear the bleeping masks, folks.
Here’s an analogy. Go to the food court at the mall with your gun, close your eyes, spin around, and then fire a shot. Much of the time the bullet won’t hit anyone. Sometimes the bullet will wound someone. A few times the bullet will kill someone. Yes, it’s true that 99 percent of the people in the food court weren’t killed by your bullet. But wouldn’t you agree that firing a gun with your eyes closed at the food court is a criminal act?
Maskholes, when you enter Kroger without wearing a mask, when you sing in the choir at church without a mask, when you march shoulder-to-shoulder at a Black Lives Matter rally without wearing a mask, you are that person in the food court firing a gun with your eyes shut. You are killing people. You are a murderer.
Stop it. Stop being a maskhole.
Mike Wilson is a lawyer, professor, and author of Arranging Deck Chairs on the Titanic, political poetry for a post-truth world.
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