James Veverka: Masking broadcasts a belief in teamwork & shared community

To The Daily Sun,

New research out of South Korea regarding the contagiousness of children is not good news for anyone. A study of nearly 65,000 children found that those younger than 10 transmit Covid-19 to others much less often than adults do, but the risk is not zero. But those between the ages of 10 and 19 can spread the virus at least as well as adults do. Get that?

There have been several studies from Europe and Asia that suggested young children are less likely to get infected and to spread the virus, but according to Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, "most of those studies were small and flawed." Jha noted that the study was "very carefully done, it’s systematic and looks at a very large population. It’s one of the best studies we’ve had to date on this issue.” Every school district needs to take this new data seriously.

The letters from the ant-maskers and those that downplay the gravity of this pandemic get more padded room by the day. This week's winner among several candidates was Ms. Grasso's letter likening masking to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. As one letter writer noted, she needs to get educated before she attempts to educate others. OCD of the germaphobe kind is just that: obsessive and compulsive. Wearing a mask for the safety of the community and yourself is not. It is an intelligent choice made through conscious deliberation based on the latest knowledge of the disease.

Masking broadcasts a belief in teamwork and a shared community, not the me-me-me myopia of those who think the government is attacking their personal liberties. Furthermore, clinical psychologist Oren Amitay has noted in the Toronto Sun that a large proportion of people who tend to be non-mask-wearers think in "black and white" and lack the nuance to perceive that two or more things can be true at once. These people are difficult to reach due to their way of processing information, perceiving the world, and how their emotions rule their reasonings.

If you've ever tried to change someone's entrenched view with hard indisputable science, you'll remember that they usually doubled down. Because this kind of anti-science and anti-intellectuality way of thinking is too common in this country, it made perfect sense to me in early March that under Trump with his army of Covidiots, we would totally screw this up. Craven selfishness, obtuse obstinance, willful ignorance, and the astonishing incompetence at the top was to be the recipe for America's "exceptional" failure.

James Veverka

Tilton