The governor was right to impose fines for not wearing a mask. But is it enough?
When Gov. Ned Lamont announced last week that people caught not wearing a mask could face a $100 fine, cries of “King Ned” came quickly.
Hecklers turned out to Gov. Lamont’s public appearances, carrying signs reading “liberty or death” and “stop the tyranny.” One Naugatuck man with a bullhorn said the governor had no right to require his 3-year-old daughter to wear a mask.
Gov. Lamont has indeed issued a fair number of executive orders since he declared a state of emergency in the spring, and it’s important for the public to ask if he is overextending his authority — but in many cases, the answer is clearly “no,” and the mask protesters are missing the point and risking lives.
The $100 fine for not wearing a mask is perfectly appropriate and, it appears, necessary to encourage compliance with a simple and painless act that saves lives. The legislature could easily impose the same fine. No overextension here.
In one part of Indonesia, people who were caught not wearing masks were punished by being forced to dig graves for people who had died of COVID-19. A $100 fine doesn’t send as clear a message.
It’s unlikely that municipal police are going to swarm public places and hand out $100 fines to the maskless, although they should make it a priority. In the end, the choice really remains with individuals.
But this isn’t just about a handful of people refusing to wear masks. The data tell us that the anti-maskers are far from alone in ignoring common sense.
Connecticut’s coronavirus numbers are consistently creeping back up, and by one measure, the state had one of the highest transmission rates in the nation. There’s no clear answer to the question of whether there is a specific cause. Gov. Lamont speculated that it could be from people traveling or seasonal changes. The recent influx of college students has also contributed.
One thing we do know: The numbers are increasing because of increased human contact. That’s how the coronavirus spreads. The best way to decrease the spread is to decrease human contact.
If we want to avoid another April situation when the whole state went into lockdown, it’s time for everyone to double down on simple, sensible precautions. Lax attitudes toward back-yard barbecues and gatherings, inconsistent mask wearing, not washing hands — it all contributes to the spread.
Yes, we all feel pandemic fatigue. But the coronavirus doesn’t get tired, so we have to keep our guard up. And it is so simple to do that. A cloth mask isn’t some sort of medieval shackle, and wearing one is hardly a sacrifice. Masks do not present a health risk to the vast majority of people — quite the opposite.
This has nothing to do with rights or freedoms, and to cast it as such is to intentionally misrepresent the issue. Can’t we stand together on this one simple thing? To protect the lives of the people around us, can’t we cover our mouths and noses with a simple mask?
Politicizing a pandemic is senseless. People who refuse to wear masks forfeit their claims to rationality. They are literally spitting in the faces of the rest of us. Their hostility to society is only dividing us further.
Wear a mask or face a fine. The penalty could be much, much worse.
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