Opinion: Why don’t Utahns wear masks?

Spc. Kalani Bedell, a parachute rigger from the nineteenth Particular Forces Group, sews collectively two layers of cloth to make masks to guard Utah Nationwide Guard troopers in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic on April 15, 2020, at Camp Williams. The masks are primarily based on directions from College of Florida Well being, with two layers of tightly woven cotton material.

Sgt. Ariel J. Solomon, Utah Nationwide Guard

Not way back, a buddy from the Bay Space visited me at my BYU workplace. He identified, quite dismayed, that the BYU campus was the one place in his go to to Utah the place he had seen many individuals sporting masks. He mentioned in his hometown everybody wore masks in the course of the pandemic. Equally, my oldest son has been visiting for the vacations from New York Metropolis. He returned from a fast journey to the grocery retailer and expressed shock that nearly nobody on the retailer had a masks on, though our COVID-19 numbers are excessive and rising.

After all, these of us who reside right here aren't shocked at this. In Utah, the place even a plea from the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints goes largely unheeded, we appear to be pro-virus quite than pro-life or pro-health. Our particular person freedoms are extra necessary than the well being of our neighbors or ourselves. We fake that the pandemic is over. However the virus doesn’t care what we expect. As of Jan. 3, one out of each 875 Utahns has died of COVID-19. However that's simply collateral harm in our egocentric warfare on purpose and authorities “overreach.”

Roger Terry

Orem