Sometimes you need to set an example to encourage others to act appropriately. Your commentary offers an important allegory based on current events, often replicated daily.

Sadly we have a typhoid president :(

Fred, wearing a mask when not six feet apart is fine, but continuing to prevent businesses to open that can follow guidelines is causing more damage than not. Florida, Georgia, Texas, among other states, are taking positive action, which is great. New York, not so much. In New York, we have an inept Governor who blames everyone else but himself.

Here is a report about a JP Morgan study that states in part: "Infection rates continued to decline virtually everywhere once familiar routines were resumed, he noted, which indicates the disease's spread may have been diminished by factors as increased hand-washing and sanitizing, the arrival of warmer weather in the northern hemisphere and the fact that the people most vulnerable to COVID-19 had already contracted it." https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/coronavirus-infections-decline-after-ropening-data-jp-morgan

Who would have thought that protecting yourself and others would become political?

They named the first person in China who was responsible for spreading the coronavirus ala Typhoid Mary. His name was Ah Choo

Here’s hoping you are right!

I am not convinced that the assertion of "personal rights" is at the core of this. It's more a statement, " I care so little about myself or those around me, that I am willing to put my machismo (even for women) ahead of common sense." I wonder how many of those people wear seatbelts, stop at red lights and stop signs, look both ways before crossing, smoke, etc

Fred, you always seem to press the right buttons to get politics into this blog arena. Anyway. we should just wear the mask. It's now a fashion statement that is kind of like the way wearing a hat was before Kennedy made it fashionably OK not to (oops, politics, my bad).

I agree with Ben. Everyone keeps comparing the current pandemic to a bad sci fi movie. But in every science fiction movie I have seen, or book I read, that usually brings the world together. Not divide us as this has.

I echo Shelly's comments. Adding, we are in "liminal space" between what was and what will be... where what will be is unknown. Opening up, however, expecting it to be what was before is not sustainable. A impediment to innovation & growth is knowing. New thinking is needed.

During the pandemic Is it the Democrats that follow the rules and wear the mask? It seems that way according to Derf and Corey . A few others as well . I’ll bet you they are Democrats I.e. the good guys ? The white hats .? Trump is bad . No mask . It’s the media headline at the end of the day . Bad guy Republican no mask . It’s become a joke folks . Hillary LOST ! And when are you gonna get over it ? Maybe in November when you lose again ? J-J-J - Joe Biden ? Does he even have access to a mask ? Give me an effen break ? You got no better subject for your blog today Lester Holt ? Let’s get serious folks . Humanity on display at its worst . I hope you are all so proud of yourselves . Watch out Lemmings . The road ends around the bend . Pay attention .

HollanderSends

Another perspective, even if a minority opinion (at least here). A large part of the discussion among people i know is about personal rights. The slippery slope is very slippery. And when you see how some Governors are acting, Whitmer, Cuomo, Inslee, Murphey, et al., and how easy they are taking away personal rights with no basis in science, it is scary. Their arbitrary choosing of winners and losers, their treating religious institutions differently than big box stores, etc. But more than that I see some supporters of these out of control Governors as saying and thinking: I am so afraid and so selfish and I only care about myself. I am financially comfortable and in good health and that if others are out of work, and/or losing their business, they are not as important as I am. If tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people have missed cancer screenings, heart screenings, etc., they are not as important as my selfish fear of catching a virus with a 99%+ survival rate. If I feel like I should stay indoors, everyone should.