Jana Riess: Memo to the anti-masked – You are the reason why we cannot have good things

In late May, members of the media agreed on two hairdressers in Missouri who continued to cut their hair even after they began to feel the symptoms of COVID-19. Together, the two stylists combed 139 people, who then went home to their families without realizing that they had been exposed to the disease and may now be infecting others.

Experts predicted a life-threatening “superprocessor” situation. Springfield, Missouri was carefully observed as a new epicenter of the disease. People prepared for the worst.

What led to this unexpected postponement? Was Springfield lucky 140 times in a row?

What could have been a disaster has become a data point on life in #coronatide, positive proof that face masks work. Stylists and clients wore masks when interacting with each other in the salon, and that apparently made a big difference, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week. “Compliance with the company and community facial coverage policy,” the CDC noted, “likely mitigated the spread of SARS-CoV-2.”

The fact that masks, even homemade cloth masks, are so effective should be excellent news for all of us as we wait for an effective vaccine to become widely available. Since that wait could take many months even at best, we want to learn best practices on how to live in the meantime without shutting down our economy and our schools. As such, we should all be glad that such a simple, safe, cheap, and effective strategy to stop the spread is within our grasp.

Instead, millions of Americans resist.

Coronavirus cases are springing up in all three states, so they don’t have the luxury of allowing their misguided and selfish understanding of what freedom to rule the day is. We are in a public health crisis. We need to think about freedom for everyone.

Of course he did. But when the freedoms of the vulnerable are not as important as the freedoms of the healthy, it is a perversion of the idea of ​​freedom.

Ironies abound. In the name of saving the economy, anti-mask activists are actively working to dismantle the economy, because stores and restaurants will have more customers and greater economic success when masks are a staple. The masks work most effectively in a community when everyone uses them, because this virus can easily spread from asymptomatic and presymptomatic people, not just those who actively sneeze in the face.

It is a privilege that we live in a nation that values ​​freedom, but for at least a century, that has not been an uncontrolled freedom. Over the decades, our courts have imposed some limits on First Amendment rights. For example, you cannot shout “fire” in a crowded theater because that would endanger the lives of others (Schenck v. United States, 1919). It is no accident that this limitation on freedom occurred during the war, when the court ruled that the national interest could sometimes exceed individual rights.

Right now, we are all enlisted in a war against this virus, and we must understand that our individual “rights” may be temporarily restricted so that we can save human lives. Refusing to wear a mask in public is a selfish act that endangers the lives and livelihoods of others. It goes against the best ideals of the American nation.

Please anti-masked, put your country first.

Editor’s Note • The opinions expressed in this opinion piece do not necessarily reflect those of the Religion News Service.