COVERAGE: Stick with guidelines

Your coverage (as well as the event itself) of the St. Patrick’s Day party at Paddy’s is outrageous. I have never written a letter to the editor before, however this issue needs to be addressed. The two top articles on the first page 3/18 by both Cd’A and Hayden mayors address the need to follow current guidelines in order to best protect our community.

Add insult to injury, you then print how hard medical personnel are working, following special protocols etc to care for those who need it. Dr. Scoggins of Kootenai Health speaks of “an unprecedented healthcare challenge in our region” and you print two pages of how exactly to make matters potentially worse.

My wife and I are both in the medical profession, and receive multiple updates daily on changes in protocol as information is updated by the CDC and others. Certain routine medical procedures are being discouraged by state and federal agencies as a measure to help slow the spread of coronavirus.

Wednesday Schweitzer mountain announced an early close to their season in order to follow guidelines of 50 persons or less in any environment.

Continued behavior like the one described here is what is forcing government agencies to close businesses because people refuse to self regulate and follow relatively simple albeit inconvenient temporary guidelines. Let’s all try to have some common sense in a time when the sand is shifting under our feet daily.

BILL LYNCH

Newman Lake, WA