PRESS EDITORIAL: Not a personal responsibility—it’s a community responsibility

It is not an accident or a coincidence that coronavirus infections, hospitalizations and deaths are soaring in states where elected leaders refused to enact or extend pandemic restrictions or even firm guidelines, saying—with a number of governors using the identical words—social distancing and mask wearing is a “personal responsibility.”

Too many Americans have found taking that responsibility an inconvenience they can’t put up with, even as confirmed Covid-19 infections surpassed 50,000 on successive days last week and deaths rose to nearly 130,000.

Perhaps the virus scoffers are misled by the term. It is not, after all, a personal responsibility to take basic steps to limit the spread of the disease—it is a community responsibility.

The point of keeping a safe distance from others in social situations and wearing a mask is to do one’s part for the community. It is not a stretch to call it a duty of citizenship.

The widespread dismissal of that duty suggests a question: Is there something missing from the nation’s character in the America of the 21st century?

This is the country whose collective energy—individuals working and sacrificing together for the common good—defeated the greatest threat to freedom in world history in World War II, rose from the Great Depression to become the world’s most powerful economy and, at its founding, wrested independence from the world’s most formidable empire.

Yet today many of the descendants of the Americans who made that history through their community effort think foregoing the instant gratification of mingling in crowds in bars, on beaches and at events or shopping in crowded stores without wearing a mask is too much to ask.

It is too easy to blame this on the void in health crisis leadership from President Trump. Americans as a people who famously value their independence should be able to think for themselves, dismiss the nonsense coming from the White House and figure out that the virus is not going to magically disappear or that drinking Lysol to combat it is not a good idea.

Being reasonably informed is another duty of citizenship, and sound information about the pandemic is abundant and easily accessible.

Epidemiologists, including several of the Trump administration’s own health officials, have been remarkably accurate in what they have assessed and recommended about the virus, including social distancing and mask wearing, and they were spot-on correct in forecasting that states that reopened their economies before reaching virus containment goals set by the CDC would face a resurgence of the disease and be forced to shutter some businesses again.

It is all there to be found in voluminous reporting by reputable news organizations. Refusing to make the effort to find it or rejecting it as fake news are not excuses for being uninformed about what has been called the most dangerous health threat to face mankind in more than a century.

It is reassuring, at least, to learn that this does not apply to most Americans. Polls show a majority approving restrictions to counter the spread of the virus. But, unfortunately, this is a situation in which the minority rules, with the power to endanger the health of entire communities.

Which, of course, is why restrictions are necessary—and why, here in Ozaukee County, the decision to hold the Ozaukee County Fair is a dangerous mistake.

The county’s public health officials have advised the Ozaukee Fair Board to cancel the traditionally heavily attended mid-summer event in Cedarburg, but the fair organizers are adamant that the show will go on.

Their persistence is puzzling. The heart and soul of this historically beloved event—the display and judging of 4-H members’ animals and crafts—has been ruled out in a proper exercise of caution by the University of Wisconsin Extension.

What will be left of the fair will essentially be a carnival. And it is a certainty that the community responsibility to maintain a safe social distance from others and wear masks will not be universally observed.