I’m responding to some gross inaccuracies appearing in “Resist Left’” (June 4, PDN.)
The writer uses an article lifted from the April 1 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) to claim that mask-wearing during this corona virus pandemic, outside hospital settings, is unnecessary.
But, those same authors, writing two months later, in the June 3 NEJM, now say:
“We understand that some people are citing our Perspective article (published on April 1 at NEJM.org) as support for discrediting wide-spread masking. In truth, the intent of our article was to push for more masking, not less.”
The letter-writer also cites the World Health Organization (WHO) as claiming that masking is only necessary when caring for COVID-19 patients.
But on June 5, WHO broadened its recommendations for masking, attributing the change to increasing evidence that “COVID-19 can be spread by people before they have symptoms.”
Lastly, the letter politicizes pandemic responses without recognizing the polarizing power of President Donald Trump. Disregarding all medical advice, excepting all the testing centered around him, an unmasked Trump signals a return to normalcy.
By aping his maskless behavior, Trump’s followers, lacking access to Trump’s level of testing, put us all at a higher risk of infection.
Their slavish behavior, unmindful of the common good, demonstrates anything but freedom, but rather a mindless adherence to one of Trump’s most hallowed and most mimicked principles: monkey see, monkey do.
Bob Domin
Port Ludlow