The politicization of wearing face masks as a response to COVID-19 is not only ridiculous, but it is also potentially harmful to our fellow Wyomingites and Americans.
People who oppose the wearing of masks have forgotten the important reason why we take these health safety measures. We do not wear masks because we are affiliated with a certain political party; we wear because we care.
We care about you. We care about your family. We care about our professors. We care about our cashiers. We care about our waitstaff. We care about every member of our community.
When you can wear a mask and choose not to, you are sending a clear message to your friends, family and people in your community: “I do not care about your health or the health of our immunocompromised.”
This is not about you. It is about our community. We wear because we care.
The point of wearing a mask is simple: to reduce the amount of respiratory droplets we emit in case we are asymptomatic so we do not infect anyone in our community.
We understand the frustration with a mask that fogs up glasses or restricts normal breathing, but there are hundreds of different kinds of masks out there. From a simple bandana, a cloth mask, to an N95 mask, there are a variety of options for everyone. To put it simply, there is only one non-medical reason for not wearing a face mask in public: you do not care for the health of your community.
In Wyoming, we have had a relatively small number of cases of COVID-19 since the beginning.
If we want to keep it that way and keep it from rising, we need to be more diligent and wear face masks.
Wearing a mask for the safety of others is extremely American. Throughout our history, in times of crisis, U.S. citizens have had to make sacrifices. When Hitler and his armies invaded various European countries and the United States entered the second World War, citizens of the U.S. had to ration their food so that our troops could help end the war.
This pandemic is a time of crisis. Our sacrifice is simply wearing a mask in public.
It is not political; it is a reasonable health-conscious sacrifice to help our communities, both local and national, recover from this horrible disease. Help us get this message out: we wear because we care.
#wewearwecare
