Our latest #LIHerald.com editorial….
Bruce Blakeman’s first public act as Nassau County executive-elect, in the second week of December, was one of rebellion. Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, had ordered mask use in indoor spaces where people gather to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. Blakeman, a Republican, said he would defy the order, refusing to enforce it once he took office Jan. 1. The governor had left enforcement to the counties.
We understand Blakeman’s reluctance to reinstate a mask mandate. People have grown tired of obeying orders. Most of us just want our freedom back. We want our old pre-pandemic lives. We crave normalcy.
Apologies for the blunt language, but the coronavirus doesn’t give a damn about our desire to return to the way things were before all hell broke loose. It is a virus. It has an innate need to replicate, and to replicate it requires host bodies. Nature has granted the virus a seemingly incalculable ability to mutate to avoid eradication.
That is why we must do all in our power to eliminate the coronavirus — including wearing masks in public spaces. That is why the state mandate is necessary.
Blakeman has said there is little scientific evidence to demonstrate that masking reduces transmission of the coronavirus. That is not true. He only need look to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Science Brief from Dec. 6, titled “Community Use of Masks to Control the Spread of SARS-CoV-2,” to find it.
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