To Wear A Mask

A guy walked into a Costco (story) and began his shopping without a mask. Costco requires customers to wear a mask. So a Costco employee (wearing a mask) walks up to the guy and tells him to put on a mask. The guy refuses because, he says, he woke up a free country. So the Costco guy tells him to leave the store and takes away his shopping cart.

I think some people are confused about what a free country allows. It’s a free country but you can’t drive a hundred miles per hour on our highways. It’s a free country but you can’t take a loaded gun onto a passenger jet. It’s a free country but you have no right to come into my house without an invitation.

America is a free country, but there are federal laws and state laws and county laws and city laws. America has laws, as does every other country. Wearing a mask is not about freedom. Wearing a mask is about not giving a disease to people around you. You might insist you don’t have a disease, but no one knows that for sure, including you. Some people with Covid don’t exhibit symptoms; some exhibit very mild symptoms. But your cough or sneeze could give someone else a disease that kills them. Why is your “freedom” to not wear a mask more important than the lives of people around you?

If wearing a mask protected you and only you, then I would say, “let the guy (you) not wear a mask if he doesn’t want to.” But I would say that with one caveat. If you choose to walk around in crowds without a mask, then you should forfeit your right to hospital care if you get Covid. Why should you put doctors and nurses at risk of catching the disease from you, when you intentionally avoided preventive action? Why should medical people put their lives on the line to save you, when you refused to help yourself? If you would agree to not seek medical care if you caught Covid, then I would be okay with you not wearing a mask.

But it doesn’t work that way. Not wearing a mask means you could unknowingly infect others. I’m not okay with that, and you shouldn’t be either.