Sorry if you disagree...but not really

I have heard the grumblings about the PCN office being closed to the public (for the most part) and about the “No Mask, No Entry” signs I have posted on the front door.

I am sorry if you are upset. I am not sorry for the decision. A popular opinion around town and on social media is “don’t live in fear.” I am not afraid of Covid-19, but I am afraid of people who don’t take it seriously. It doesn’t matter if you believe the conspiracy theories about this deadly disease. Equating COVID-19 to “people die in car accidents, so we should we stop driving?” or “obese people die every day, why aren’t we doing something about that?” is an insane argument because you can’t transmit a car accident to someone else and you can’t catch obesity.

Another argument is the response to covid, on both sides, is that it is political. I am here to tell you that I don’t care if Gov. Bullock issues a mask mandate or if Greg Gianforte wins the governorship and says no to a mask mandate. I don’t trust politicians in general, so their words have little effect on my decisions. Who I do listen to is local health officials and this nation’s scientists. Mistakes have certainly been made by these folks, but I chalk that up to COVID-19 being in its infancy and therefore the goal post does move each day, week, month etc… as new things are discovered about the Coronavirus Disease. That said, I will still take their word over politicians or people who think their rights are being infringed upon because they “have” to wear a mask.

Don’t get me wrong, masks suck to wear. Personally, they make my glasses fog, the make the back of my ears hurt, and they make my beard unruly and untamed. Those are the breaks.

“Masks are recommended as a simple barrier to help prevent respiratory droplets from traveling into the air and onto other people when the person wearing the mask coughs, sneezes, talks, or raises their voice,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states. “This is called source control. This recommendation is based on what we know about the role respiratory droplets play in the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19, paired with emerging evidence from clinical and laboratory studies that shows masks reduce the spray of droplets when worn over the nose and mouth.”

That is somewhat jargon-filled for so let me simply it: Wearing masks is more about protecting those around you rather than yourself (though it does protect you as well.) Surgeons wear masks to protect patients from mouth born germs, not the other way around.

At the end of the day, the PCN is a staff of three (and because of my heart surgery a few years ago, I am more susceptible to it than others.) If one of us was to catch this disease, it would severely hamper us. We are set up for remote work should one of us fall ill, but if a mask could prevent that, all the better. Krista (news editor) and Pierre (sports editor) both attend events where masks are not worn and do so because that is their job. They put themselves at risk to keep the community informed. At the PCN office, we can still have visitors through the front door, we just ask that the meeting is by appointment and that you wear a mask when you enter. It is the decision that I made, on my own with the knowledge gleaned through doctors and scientists, and I stand by it. That could and I hope will change, but for now, it is my responsibility to keep my staff safe and to keep the public in general safe. Masks alone aren’t going to stop COVID-19 but hopefully slow the spread. If you don’t want to follow the mask mandate and defy the democratically elected governor of this state's mask mandate, that is your choice. It is also my choice to ask that if you aren’t going to wear a mask that you call, E-mail, or use the USPS to get your information to us. You don’t have to believe in COVID-19 for your actions to make someone sick or to take their life…let’s err on the side of caution and compassion and not feelings and arguments. I apologize if you disagree or upset by this...but not really.