Such a tiny sacrifice

Like most people in the US, I am morbidly fascinated by the slow-motion disaster unfolding now in this country with Covid. It's a vast landscape of pain and death, and sometimes I feel like it's simply too much to contemplate. But I'd like to focus on a very specific aspect of our current national drama: the wearing, or not wearing, of a mask.

When we look back at the Spanish flu years, it's easy for us to feel a condescending pity. Ah yes, these poor souls, they didn't have modern medicine, and thus were lambs to the slaughter. But you know what? Our ancestors at least tried to manage the devastation of the flu. Masks were not only strongly encouraged but, in many places, legally required. If you were not wearing a mask, you could be arrested and thrown in jail. There was a lot of social pressure to wear a mask, everywhere. Was that overreaction? Was that hysteria?

Why is it hysterical to demand that people wear a mask, a very minor, and temporary, inconvenience, but perfectly reasonable to demand that people remove their shoes at the airport, or submit themselves to intimate pat-downs by the TSA? Airplane terrorism has killed fewer people than a couple of days of Covid in this country.

For that matter, why is no one howling at the fascist thugs who force us to wear pants in public? What a heinous attack on our precious freedoms! Down with the trouser nazis!

Obviously, it doesn't help when the loudest voice in the country casts doubt on the disease itself, and on the simple measures we can take to keep it in check. Donald Trump could not be bothered to wear a mask for months after Covid flared up in the U.S., and this appalling lack of leadership probably caused tens of thousands of deaths. It would have cost him nothing to wear a mask, to be an example to rest of the country. But not only did he consciously decide not to do that, he actually made fun of people who did wear a mask. This is criminal negligence at the very least, and more likely murderous idiocy. 

Think about it. The simple act of putting a piece of cloth over his mouth and nose would likely have made a significant difference in the evolution of this disease in the U.S. I cannot think of a smaller gesture having a larger impact, and it would have cost him nothing -- all he had to do was wear a mask in public, thereby giving permission to millions of his followers to do the same. But he simply could not be bothered. Apparently, he was concerned that it would make him look weak.

And now we are reaping the whirlwind. Almost three thousand Americans died of Covid yesterday. Probably even more will die today, and this agony will keep going until the vaccines start to take effect, or we start to take this disease seriously. And Donald Trump is golfing. At least he's no longer telling us that this disease is just going to go away. Surely, some part of him must realize that, in the light of history, the last year of his presidency is going to be seen as a tragedy of biblical proportions. I will remember it as the worst lack of leadership we have ever experienced, and a tragedy made much worse by a lazy, incompetent, cowardly, vicious and sad man. May he disappear into his abyss of self-pity, ignorance and corruption. He will not be missed.

I am nauseous at this waste of human life, at this immense amount of suffering, which will go on for years for many people. A lot of it was preventable. We could not avoid Covid, but we could have done a far better job of managing it and reducing its impact. Can you think of a smaller ask than to add, temporarily, one small piece of clothing? We would have been much better off if we had made pants optional but masks mandatory. No one has ever died from seeing someone naked.