Editorial: Wear a mask in public
As Spokane County and all of Washington lurches toward full reopening, all residents must help curb the spread of COVID-19. If people take sensible precautions and participate in contact tracing, communities will be on a path toward economic and social reinvigoration. If not, the state will relapse into a rapidly spreading pandemic.
The necessary steps to save lives and minimize debilitating health outcomes are known. Other nations have demonstrated that COVID-19 can be fought to a standstill, if not beaten entirely without a vaccine. South Korea, New Zealand, Germany and others all took aggressive action to stop the spread. They succeeded, in part, because people recognized that what was good for their community was good for themselves.
The simplest two things people should do are to maintain six feet distance from others whenever possible and to wear a mask in public. While social distancing hasn’t been particularly controversial, some people believe wearing a mask – or more accurately not wearing one – is a political statement. It’s not.
Wearing a mask helps protect you from others and others from you. The virus that causes COVID-19 takes up to two weeks to manifest as a fever, coughing and other symptoms, and some people never display symptoms. During those weeks, they are infectious but don’t know it. Anyone, then, can be carrying the virus and expelling it into the air with every breath, yawn and cough. A mask catches the virus-carrying droplets on the way out.
Not wearing a mask doesn’t prove your bravery or stick it to Gov. Jay Inslee. It needlessly risks lives.
Washington strongly encourages people to wear masks but has stopped short of requiring them except in a few circumstances. Employers are supposed to have employees wear them. And where places of worship have resumed services, like in Spokane County, everyone who attends must social distance and wear a mask.
Washington is behind the rest of the West Coast. California now requires masks in public. Oregon requires them in public indoor spaces in seven populous counties. We wouldn’t be surprised if Inslee follows suit soon.
We’ll concede that wearing a mask feels a little awkward at first. Walking around with a mask is strange in America. But like most things that really are small changes, it becomes natural in almost no time. Buy or make a few. Then throw a mask in the car and keep one by the door with your keys. If you must make a statement, let the mask do it. Pick one with your favorite sports team, presidential candidate or Disney character. Just remember to wash them frequently and cover both your nose and your mouth.
Contact tracing also is important so that people can know if they might have been exposed to the virus. Churches are encouraged to keep a log of who attends services. That way if someone tests positive for the virus, everyone who spent an hour indoors with that person can be notified. More than 240 cases have been tied to a single church in Oregon’s Union County.
Church contact tracing is only a start, though. Soon, digital tools will roll out that will make tracing much more effective and widespread. The more people who voluntarily participate, the better off everyone will be.
Just because some people are growing accustomed to life with COVID-19 doesn’t mean they can grow complacent about prevention.
As communities have reopened, case numbers have increased. Correcting some bad math by the Washington State Department of Health pushed the numbers even further up going back two months.
Spokane County this week was stymied in its desire to move to Phase 3 reopening. County Health Officer Bob Lutz declined to sign off on that next step because of a jump in new cases that appear to be occurring from community spread.
“If people at the community level are not willing to support this communitywide effort, it will be challenging to get in front of it and move forward,” Lutz told reporters Wednesday.
He’s right. If Spokane County wants to open more, its residents must take the sensible steps to slow the spread of the disease.
As Arnold Schwarzenegger said this week, “Anyone making [masks] a political issue is an absolute moron who can’t read.”