COVID: My body. My choice.

"Stuff the mandate!"  "Mask = muzzle"  "We will not comply."

     "I choose not to wear a mask. I'm a hugger. I'm at rallies all the time. If this so-called virus was a bad as they say it was, don't you think I would have gotten it by now?"

        Geena Shipman, a protest organizer

COVID cases hit new record highs. Oregon Governor Kate Brown calls for a "two-week freeze" that prohibits indoor and outdoor dining in restaurants. The Oregon Restaurant & Lodging Association asked a federal judge to block the freeze, saying it will have devastating effects for its members and their employees.

The Governor's freeze includes a prohibition on Thanksgiving gatherings of more than six people.

Around the country Democratic governors have been announcing restrictions along the lines of this one announced by Governor Kate Brown. Some Republican governors have refused to do so, saying that mask-wearing and social distancing should be a matter of personal choice. A great many county sheriffs have said they won't attempt enforcement of masks, distancing, or limits on gathering size, saying it was unenforceable or wrong on principle.

Meanwhile COVID cases are hitting new record highs. There are 1,174 new cases in Oregon, 6 new deaths. In my small corner of the state, with about 6% of the Oregon's total population, we have 80 new cases today and 1017 cases in the past two weeks and 32 related deaths, so far. The most recent one was a man in his fifties. 

Last week, prior to the freeze, customers had been crowding back into bars and restaurants, maskless, doing what free humans do, enjoying social interactions. The more and closer the interactions, the faster the virus spreads, and that is exactly what is happening. The spike in cases mostly involve young people, who generally appear to survive, and then it spreads to older people, some of whom are hospitalized and some of them die. Hospitals are announcing that they are almost at capacity. Elective surgeries are being delayed to save room for COVID patients in Intensive Care unit. 

By now we have figured out what is causing the virus to spread, and even though the cure is politically unpopular, Democratic--and some Republican--governors are taking action. 

Since they are making rules and positioned as the enforcer of virtuous behaviors in the public interest, they are held to a high standard. We live in a world of cameras in phones and a phone on every person. California Governor Gavin Newsom was photographed maskless at a table at a Napa, California restaurant. This image has circulated widely on conservative broadcast and social media. As this blog has noted, people who are advocates for freedom and rule-breaking are not hypocritical when they break rules. Anti-maskers need not wear masks. Trump need not be virtuous in his behavior because being a cynical salesman and fighter is his brand. But people asserting and enforcing virtuous behavior must be consistently virtuous. Look at Newsom at the expensive restaurant and Nancy Pelosi maskless getting her hair done, the hypocrites! The liberal elitists! Why should we sacrifice if they don't?

I asked one owner of a fine-dining restaurant what he thought Oregon's governor should do. His restaurant is again fully closed for this "freeze." Being closed is very expensive for him, but he said he thought she had no choice but to do it. Restaurants, he said he realized, are a place where COVID spreads easily. Customers are maskless while eating. They supposedly can have distance between tables but as a practical matter this cannot be maintained. They face one another while talking. They interact with servers. Servers, cooks, and dishwashing staff work in close quarters. Sit-down restaurants and bars have all the attributes of spreader sites. 

In actual operation, rules will seem somewhat arbitrary and unequal and will be more burdensome for some than others. Grocery stores are open because people need to buy food, and theoretically people can be at a distance, although that is hard to maintain. Yet restaurants must be closed: that seems to restaurants like an unfair distinction. 

People can meet at the home of a friend for a party, a meal,  or any other reason, be as close as they want and wear what they want and spread the virus, and go home to spread it some more. If a governor ignores that home-based social interaction, it causes restaurants to wonder why they are picked on. If a governor presumes to tell people what they can do in their own homes, it's an invasion of privacy and tyranny. It is a can't-win proposition.

The loudest voices are voices of protest against restrictions.  People inclined to support the governors' actions and be happy that grocery stores require masks and that spreader-sites are closed  understand it to be a "necessary evil" and nothing to be thrilled about. But there is a perspective, voiced in this letter to the editor, that asserts that we all have an interest in the sanitation of others. Freedom to choose?  Really? We do want our restaurant servers to wash their hands after using the toilet, don't we?  What if they prefer not to? 

Here's the letter:  FREEDOM TO NOT WEAR A MASK

                       "Welcome to the Freedom Cafe!   

      We trust you to make your own choices if you want to wear a face mask. And, in the same spirit of individual liberty, we allow our staff to make their own choices about the safety procedures they prefer to follow as they prepare and serve your food.  

      We encourage employees to wash their hands after using the bathroom, but understand that some people may be allergic to certain soaps or may simply prefer not to wash their hands. It is not our place to tell them what to do. . . . "