DeWine's about-face on masks is unfortunate

Gov. Mike DeWine has received well-deserved praise both inside and outside Ohio for his handling of the coronavirus crisis.

He has consistently made tough calls earlier than most other state leaders, and certainly ahead of an uneven response at the federal level. (A less charitable description of the federal response is “criminally negligent,” but I digress.)

DeWine’s willingness to take the hard road earned him some wiggle room with me when he announced that some parts of the state economy would reopen in May, accompanied by stringent regulations.

I’m no epidemiologist — I don’t even play one on TV — but from experts I’ve heard interviewed, a rush to reopen the economy could do more harm than good, especially if the coronavirus resurges and the wheels of commerce must grind to a halt again.

Nevertheless, DeWine had a plan, which he presented, characteristically, in a methodical, careful fashion. I was especially heartened when I learned the state would require all shoppers to wear masks. That, at least, would help to slow the spread of the virus and would serve as a visible reminder that caution must rule our public interactions until a vaccine, or at least an effective treatment, is found.

But then the governor backpedaled.

He said he had received extensive public feedback about the mandatory-mask policy, that some people found it “offensive.”

DeWine did note that he still strongly urged Ohioans to wear masks when shopping, and that individual businesses could still require shoppers to wear them.

I hope all businesses will, but I doubt it. Store owners and managers are not in the habit of turning away dollars, and with this about-face from state leaders, few will feel emboldened to enforce a policy when the government is unwilling.

But I have to ask, why would anybody find the idea of being forced to wear a mask in public “offensive”?

I know such people are out there. I see them posting on social media about how they refuse to cover their mouths and noses and will defy any such orders, that they aren’t criminals and won’t abide being treated like one.

They aren’t the lunatic fringe, by and large. They are people who love and care for their families, who bring food when their neighbors are sick and who support charities that help their communities.

Perhaps they see masks as a bridge too far, an encroachment on their inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Maybe they believe the people most vulnerable to dying from the coronavirus — the elderly, the immuno-compromised — should be the ones wearing masks and sheltering in place, instead of healthy people and their families.

What they don’t fully appreciate is how insidious this virus is. How some people can be carriers without symptoms, going about their daily affairs touching bags of mulch in the garden section of the hardware store and sneezing in aisle five of the grocery store, leaving little patches of COVID for other shoppers to pick up.

These other shoppers may be buying supplies for people who are too compromised to be in public. Now, these good Samaritans take the virus with them to a elderly parent or grandparent, to a child who will eventually go to summer camp and interact with dozens of other children, any of whom can — again, completely asymptomatically — infect somebody who will not just shrug off the infection, but who will instead die from it.

Masks are not foolproof, of course. But when I’m wearing one in an indoor public venue, it’s a reminder to be conscientious, to use hand sanitizer at the entrance and exit, to stay six feet away from others when possible.

The mask is also helping to make sure I don’t inadvertently infect somebody with a potentially deadly virus I may not even know I have.

I understand that COVID fatigue is setting in. I vacillate in any given hour from believing the virus has been overhyped by the media to believing that it hasn’t been emphasized enough, especially when I read of the carnage it’s causing in hot spots around the nation and the world.

I’m glad I don’t live in one of those hot spots, and one reason I don’t is because of the proactive choices made by Gov. DeWine and his advisors, including his May 1 decision to extend stay-at-home orders.

Yet I’m disappointed by the policy change about the masks, and the unintended message it sends to rush back to normal later this spring and summer.

That sense of misplaced urgency could mean that a lot more people won’t be with us in the fall.


chris.schillig@yahoo.com

@cschillig on Twitter