STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – We thought America was divided before.
Now the polarization is on a whole different level, thanks to COVID-19.
The division is seen most glaringly in the battle over the wearing of masks to curb the virus.
If you don’t wear a mask, you’re tagged as a supporter of “science denier” President Donald Trump. You’re accused of putting people’s lives at risk just so we can re-open the economy and help Trump’s re-election.
If you do wear a mask, and insist that others should as well, you’re slammed as a mindless sheep following the herd, accused of blowing the pandemic out of proportion in order to keep the economy crippled and beat Trump.
This polarization gets us nowhere. There’s plenty of middle ground for us to meet on.
A lot of the decision-making is out of our hands when it comes to masks. Most businesses insist that you have a mask on in order to go inside. If that stops you from patronizing that business, then so be it. And if you really like the business, you wouldn’t want to jam them up by disobeying the rules.
Wearing the mask outside is a different proposition. If you can maintain social distance from people, you don’t need to have the mask on. That’s what the science tells us. If you want to keep your mask on at all times, that’s your choice. But you can’t demand that I do the same if there is social distance between us.
Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday ordered that New Yorkers must wear a mask when indoors, even when you are socially distanced from others. I’m curious to see how that’s going to be enforced when the city can’t even force people in plain sight to mask up.
Masks help, of course, but are just part of the solution, in combination with social distancing and frequent hand washing. Experts have warned that people shouldn’t think that a mask alone will give them bulletproof protection.
See? Middle ground.
The science also tells us that we can responsibly re-open businesses and other parts of society incrementally without dire consequences. We can dine outdoors. We can go shopping. People can go back to their workplaces. We just have to take precautions.
And, frankly, we can probably dine indoors, with capacity restrictions and other precautions, even if New York City hasn’t been allowed to take that step yet.
It doesn’t mean that we can throw all caution to the wind. It doesn’t mean we can just do as we please, without taking any protective steps. We can’t yet go back to life as it was before March.
But it also doesn’t mean that we need to totally hunker down, stay in our homes and not go outside.
Again, middle ground.
Coronavirus cases are spiking in states around the country. Florida, Texas, California and Arizona are the most troubling, even if Arizona and Florida showed some incrementally improving numbers over the weekend.
The spikes are cause for concern, but the concern is blunted somewhat by the fact that it’s younger people who are getting sick, and young people tend to have much better outcomes from the virus than older people. The problems are nowhere close to the devastation we saw in April. Again, middle ground.
New York City isn’t immune: De Blasio on Monday said that there’s been an uptick in virus infections here among those 20 to 29 years of age. Something worth watching as we look forward to possibly entering Phase 4 next week.
We have to remember both sides of the coin here. We can’t downplay the virus spikes. But we can’t blow them out of proportion either. We can’t yet return to normal. But we can start living again.
The middle ground is there.
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July 14, 2020 at 09:00PM
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We have to find middle ground on coronavirus (opinion) - SILive.com
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