Abbott Should Mandate Masks
To the Editor:
The number of coronavirus deaths in the U.S. in just a six month period now outnumbers all but one of the past 12 month periods of U.S. death counts of the flu. The Blue States have had more cases of the coronavirus because they typically have higher population density and are located on the west and east coasts of our country where most travelers from infected countries disembark from their flights than most Red States, but because of the far more decisive and informed actions of the leaders of Blue States the number of cases and death rates in many Blue States are leveling or even falling.
By failing to wear masks and maintain social distance this past Memorial Day weekend holiday, the coronavirus is now attacking every age group and at far greater and growing rates of increase in Texas. Yes, the protests against police brutality against persons of color will also increase the number of coronavirus cases as will this Fourth of July weekend holiday but the ICU hospital beds in Houston are now filling fast and some hospitals located outside the City of Houston are full but not because of those protests which will require at least a 15 day incubation period for those related cases to start showing.
Those with no initial “visible signs” of the coronavirus in the initial phases of contracting the disease have been known for many months now to be contagious from the start. But now we know that totally asymptomatic persons who never feel ill or show signs that they have the coronavirus can infect more than one person just by talking in close quarters (even when standing six feet or even 16 feet apart because the droplets containing the disease hang in the air for hours in confined spaces). Wearing a mask prevents the transmission of those droplets and thereby saves the lives of others. Failing to wear a mask in public needlessly and selfishly endangers the lives of others.
For the above reasons, spacing fewer children farther apart in a traditional classroom for shorter hours will not adequately protect our children or their teachers. Also most children, especially younger ones, probably cannot wear a mask properly or for long periods of time and so they must be taught online this Fall and probably next Spring. Reportedly the Texas Education Agency, which has had an accredited online 3rd to 12th grade online public school program for years and younger children may also be schooled at home by making applications with the TEA, has appropriately announced that public schools who teach children online will be able to count those online students as part of their school’s daily attendance which public schools must rely on for funding operations. Just the air conditioning and school bus budget savings alone will help fund the small number of $200 Chrome books and internet connections needed by the families of kids who cannot afford one otherwise. Incredibly, far too many school district superintendents, especially in rural areas, are resisting the online education of our children in the Fall when they should be preparing our teachers this summer to effectively teach our children online to save the lives of our children and our teachers. Call your school board members now and demand that they provide your children or grandchildren with online instruction this Fall. Ask them what happens to their school’s daily attendance state funding when the corona virus strikes making their school campus a coronavirus hot spot because these school superintendents inexplicably refused to teach our children online?
Countries with greater population densities who simultaneously mandate the wearing of a proper mask in public, wash hands, test, trace, and quarantine and test all airline passenger arrivals even those with no visible signs have far fewer cases and fewer death rates than the U.S. which is now leading the world in cases and deaths to the point that other countries like Great Britain are considering banning travel from the U.S. Had President Trump emulated the actions of the leaders of those other countries like South Korea and the Philippines months ago now by mandating masks, testing, tracing, and quarantine and financial assistance on a simultaneous nationwide basis, we may have contained this pandemic by now to small manageable local hot spots. Instead, our own State of Texas now ranks among the top six states with the highest rate of increase of corona virus cases and hospitalizations for the disease because far too many Texans refuse to wear a mask in public places and our leaders refuse to mandate them.
In fact, our own Republican Member of Congress, Michael McCaul, sent a recent online survey asking if his constituents want to wear masks like a parent pandering to a spoiled child when he should have provided those masks months ago now. Our own Governor Abbott should have mandated that we all wear them in public months ago now to save far more lives and genuinely save our economy in the long run. At least Abbott, after repeatedly ignoring their pleas for such authority, is finally allowing mayors and county judges to mandate that employers require their employees and their customers to wear masks at all times or be severely fined. Call our State Representative Ben Leman and our State Senator Lois Kolkhorst now to have them demand that our Governor immediately mandate the wearing of masks by all Texans in public places and require the online schooling of our children.
John W. Mikus
Fayetteville