Monday, 23 Sep 2024

Opinion | How Blue and Red States Deal With Covid

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To the Editor:

Re “How Will Blue America Live With Endless Covid?” (column, Oct. 21):

If Ross Douthat’s purpose was to drive a deeper wedge between liberals and conservatives, I think he succeeded admirably. Depicting basic public health measures as mask theater and “Faucian micromanagement” is misguided and counterproductive.

I wear a mask not to shame any nearby anti-masker, but to keep myself safer from them, and to keep them safer from me. Full stop. We are looking at an ongoing plague of Covid precisely because so many people irrationally refuse to cooperate with very simple public health advice: wash hands frequently, socially distance and wear a mask when in indoor public places.

When the Covid numbers drop drastically, I will drop my guard. I fear that it will be a long, long time before that day comes, however.

Roberta Rosenberger
Miami

To the Editor:

Deep blue states will need to put their egos and blinders aside to adapt to an endemic Covid world lest they become as deluded as the deep red states. Continuing over and above necessary precautions will serve only to increase anxiety, restrict activities, hamper children’s opportunities and otherwise resist normalcy.

True, the stakes are lower for extreme blue behavior than red, as mask and vaccine refusal or denial can result in myriad health, economic and social repercussions. But do the deep blue states really want to live in a state of emergency for years to come to maintain a perceived moral and intellectual high ground?

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