MASKS: The healthy approach

Wearing a mask is not a personal choice, it’s a necessary requirement to keep others safe, just as seatbelts, nonsmoking zones and drug enforcement are necessary for public health and safety.

I recognize not wearing a mask has become a political statement and instituting a mask mandate will not be popular with some, but it is the right call at this time; a decision that can be rescinded when safe to do so.

In Schenk v. United States, the Supreme Court found free speech does not include the right to incite harm to others and neither does it give people the right to put others in danger for their own personal freedom. Wearing a mask when social distancing is not possible is a safe and effective method of protecting others from death or the debilitating effects of COVID-19.

With COVID infections spiking in Kootenai County and our hospital at capacity, it is essential that masks be mandatory when social distancing is not possible, not to protect the wearer, but to protect vulnerable people who cannot isolate by themselves at home.

As someone who recently began to suffer from bouts of COVID-like breathing issues, I am well aware of the potential effects from virus infection. I wear a mask whenever I am in public and will not enter businesses that allow mask-less customers. If I have to, I will start shopping in Washington where I know I will be safer.

STEVE MATZ

Coeur d’Alene