EDITORIAL: Wear a Mask (You Runners Too) - Save Someone’s Health and the Economy

EDITORIAL: Wear a Mask (You Runners Too) - Save Someone’s Health and the Economy

The coronavirus will kill its 100,000th American this weekend. It has caused the greatest economic depression in modern world history.

It is a vicious taskmaster that can destroy anyone’s life and ruin any business.

Today, walk across Providence’s East Side and you will find few are wearing masks.

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In Newport, they are scarce.

Along the waterfront in Warren, maybe 20% of the walkers wear them.

And what is most ironic, runners who are seeking good health seem to have little interest in anyone else’s. It is hard to find a hard breathing runner donning a mask. 

Overall, the science is weak around this virus — there is no treatment and no vaccine. It is a virus that is just 6 months old. There is one strategy that is effective in limiting spread — everyone wearing a mask when in contact with one another.

This disease has killed tens of thousands of the elderly and it Is clear that the virus is relentless against all ages. There is science that even the youngest of children are being impacted.

North Dakota Republican Governor Doug Burgum decried a “senseless dividing line” between Americans over whether masks should be worn in public during the coronavirus pandemic.

In a plea for residents of his state to wear masks Burgum said, “We’re all in this together and there’s only one battle we’re fighting,” he said. “And that’s the battle of the virus.”

“This is I would say a senseless dividing line and I would ask people to try to dial up your empathy and your understanding. If someone is wearing a mask, they’re not doing it to represent what political party they’re in or what candidates they support.”

As he spoke, Burgum struggled not to break down in tears.

“They might be doing it because they’ve got a five-year-old who’s been going through cancer treatments,” he said.

Our fate is tied to our ability to control the spread of the coronavirus. Our jobs, our health and the lives of tens of thousands are on the line.