Heckle Inslee all you want, but COVID-19 regulations, not delusions, save lives
It’s not tyranny, it’s sad necessity.
It’s not an overreach, it’s acknowledging reality.
This isn’t even complicated. It’s science, and part of the public health playbook for a reason.
Dr. Anthony Chen, the director of public health at Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, underscored all of this Tuesday. Fittingly, the county’s public health expert described himself as “no longer in a hopeful place” when it comes to the county’s efforts to curtail the spread of the coronavirus and plod toward reopening.
Chen’s erosion of hope is one we all should be feeling right about now.
The fact that not all of us are is depressing and telling. In the weeks and months since the pandemic emerged, the willingness of some to sacrifice perceived liberties and freedoms in the name of the community’s well being has clearly waned. Traffic has come back. Birthday parties have resumed. A dangerous minority have deluded themselves into thinking normalcy has returned.
Unfortunately, as we’re being reminded in real time, no such COVID-19 miracle has materialized. Instead, the lackadaisical response of some has been met by an easing of public health mandates, and cases have again begun to rise.
With a spike on a graph, any progress we might have made through sacrifice quickly slips away.
“Because the health of our community is my top priority, I am withdrawing my recommendation for Pierce County to apply for an expanded Phase 2,” Chen wrote in a recent blog post.
Like them or not, the COVID-19 restrictions we’ve been living with — like mask requirements, lines outside the grocery store and limits on how many people can sit in a restaurant at one time — continue to represent our best shot at containment. No amount of wishful thinking changes it, and partisan arguments that people are smart or responsible enough to handle this on their own are being contradicted every day.
Left to our own devices, we’re learning the hard way that not enough of us are up to the task.
Most of us want to do the right thing.
Too many of us will not, unless we’re forced to — and even then it can be a battle.
Partisan politics to blame
In an interview last week, University of Washington political science professor Mark Smith said it didn’t have to be this way.
As unlikely as it might seem now, the politicized, partisan response to the pandemic wasn’t a foregone conclusion.
While it might have been inevitable for divisions to arise as we grappled with the virus and its impact on our economy, political debates over masks or sensible restrictions on getting a beer in a crowded bar were not.
“The key inflection point is when Donald Trump said … this is going to end soon,” Smith said, arguing that the president’s pandemic defiance quickly turned “a public health crisis affecting everyone across the board” into a “political issue.”
This is precisely the nightmare we’re living today. On Tuesday, Gov. Jay Inslee was heckled by a handful of protesters during an outdoor news conference in Pasco. One woman, according to The Seattle Times, accused the governor of “taking away our freedoms.”
On the Right Wing campaign trail, it’s often been the same. Well-known Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Eyman has been on constant offense. Most recently Eyman issued statements claiming Inslee “jumped the shark” when he ordered Washington residents to wear a mask in public. Eyman also has promoted “mass mask disobedience.”
While polls have consistently shown that most Americans support government efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19, there are now signs that support is beginning to deteriorate.
If accurate, it’s yet another metric trending in the wrong direction, and our dysfunctional, partisan politics bears the largest responsibility.
We won’t save ourselves
If mask hecklers and semi-automatic weapon love-ins represent the political fringe in the coronavirus debate, it’s equally true that even more moderate conservative voices have attempted to stake a position that’s clearly crumbling under the weight of the moment.
Since the honeymoon of COVID-19 bipartisanship ground to a halt, the argument by many on the right has gone something like this:
Yes, the pandemic is serious and should be treated as such, but people and business owners are responsible enough to safely respond and reopen. Allowing them the ability to do so, without the burden of restrictive government and public health mandates, potentially avoids some of the unquestionably negative economic consequences.
Admittedly, it’s an alluring proposition, and one that — in some cases — even proves accurate. Many barbers and hair salons have figured out a way, as have plenty of other small businesses.
The catch, however, is a rather large one, and it strikes at the heart of the current public health crisis. Even if the majority of individuals and businesses are willing to do the right thing, the few who aren’t put all of us at continued risk.
In states that have been more aggressive to lift restrictions and “reopen” the economy, like Texas, Florida and Arizona, it means leaders are now being forced to walk their misguided bravado back and recognize the role that public health mandates play. Meanwhile, even in a liberal state like California, which has been slower to reopen, officials are being confronted with growing evidence they moved too fast.
Hopefully, people here in Washington and Pierce County are smart enough to follow along.
The virus continues to spread at an alarming rate, and without the continued support of COVID-19 restrictions, the worst might be yet to come.
No one likes being told what to do.
But sometimes, in a crisis like this, that’s exactly what it takes.
