PRESS EDITORIAL: Let’s not pretend it is OK to act as if these are normal times

Anyone who thinks Americans can lead their normal American lives, complete with gratifications galore, in times as abnormal as these is living in a dream world.

In reality, it is more like a nightmare world.

The nightmare is the likelihood that, according to projections by federal health officials, before the year is over more than 300,000 Americans will have died from Covid-19. The confirmed death toll this week passed 163,000, which is more coronavirus deaths than any other country.

And yet much of this nation has been unwilling to muster the discipline to employ the only means now available to control the spread of the virus—social distancing with its auxiliary imperative of mask wearing.

This failure has been evident in some Ozaukee County communities. The Washington-Ozaukee Public Health Department reported on Monday that multiple Covid cases have been traced to graduation parties in Mequon and Thiensville. In Port Washington, reports of increasing infections led to an overdue discussion at last week’s meeting of the Common Council about the health risk of public events.

Aldermen expressed concern in particular about the farmers market, where social distancing and mask wearing have been mostly ignored, even by vendors handling produce and prepared food.

This resulted in a refreshingly blunt statement by Mayor Marty Becker. The mayor ordered Melissa Alexander, the executive director of Port Main Street, the organization that oversees the market, to tell vendors they must wear face masks or “this will be the last market for them this year.”

While in other communities farmers markets have been canceled or subject to strict rules concerning social distancing, mask wearing and safe packaging of produce and other items, Port Main Street’s market has been pretty much a free for all.

The same can be said about other summer events held on public property, including several of the beer gardens in Upper Lake Park. In approving these beer-themed fundraisers, city officials were naive in assuming pandemic precautions would be observed. It has become so obvious that has not happened and, in any case, is almost impossible in a beer garden setting, that a number of service organizations that reserved dates for these events have, to their credit, canceled them.

Government fiats can go only so far in attempts to limit the virus spread without the cooperation of individual citizens and community organizations. The Port Washington Fish Day committee did the right, responsible thing by cancelling this year’s event, only to see a group organize an unofficial Fish Day that brought hundreds of maskless people into close contact in a party atmosphere.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers took an important step in pandemic control by following the lead of 29 other states in ordering face masks to be worn by everyone in enclosed spaces open to the public, but the mandate’s effectiveness has been compromised by law enforcement officials who announced their refusal to enforce the order.

Ozaukee County Sheriff Jim Johnson’s statement on Facebook that he would not enforce the public health emergency order was not phrased as a political statement, but as a notice to the public that his department does not have the human resources necessary to respond to a flood of citizen complaints about mask scofflaws. No doubt this is true—for the Sheriff’s Office as well as community police departments. But the announcement nevertheless was surely read by some of the public as official permission to ignore a sensible directive meant for the good of the community.

As an elected official whose primary duty is to enforce laws, the sheriff should have called on citizens in no uncertain terms to comply with the legal requirement of mask wearing, and then asked them to refrain from reporting violations for the practical reason that his department does not have the means to enforce the order.

Surveys and anecdotal evidence indicate that most people support the use of face masks and willingly follow requests from businesses that they wear them when on their premises.

Business owners deserved to be relieved of some of the onus of enforcing mask rules by the governor’s order. Collectively, they have been one of the bright spots in the pandemic response with their leadership in instituting mask and social distancing rules for the protection of their customers and their employees.

Though this has earned the contempt of a small number of anti-maskers, it seems clear there is strong support for the efforts by both business and government to stop the surge in Covid infections and deaths.

The majority of Americans understand the need to forego the pleasures of normal American life until the coronavirus threat recedes.

Unfortunately, in a pandemic, it seems the minority rules.