Just one little story of someone being too lazy or doctrinaire or uninformed to do the right thing:
A Michigan state senator who says he took “reasonable precautions” to protect against COVID-19 did not wear a mask at an outdoor petition drive attended by hundreds less than two weeks before he tested positive for the virus.
Public health officials have not linked any COVID-19 cases to the July 18 event at Sharp Park in Eaton County, where Sen. Tom Barrett was photographed talking and shaking hands with other maskless attendees.
The Charlotte Republican, who tested positive for COVID-19 on July 31, was helping collect signatures for a petition drive to limit the kind of emergency powers Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has used to issue executive orders amid the coronavirus pandemic, including a mandate that residents wear face coverings in “crowded outdoor spaces.”
At the time, Barrett said more than 580 people from 21 Michigan counties came to sign petitions despite “no paid advertising and only a couple of days’ notice.”
That was over the course of six hours, however. Photos obtained by Bridge show roughly two-dozen attendees at the event, only one of whom was wearing a mask. In one photo, Barrett shook hands with an elderly man despite social distancing rules in effect at the time.
Under a Whitmer order that took effect July 13, residents are required to wear masks in indoor public spaces and outdoors when they are “unable to consistently maintain a distance of six feet or more from individuals who are not members of their household.”
I know they were outdoors and that’s considered pretty safe. And it’s really fine to hold events like this outdoors if you take the proper precautions. How hard is it for a political leader either to stay distanced from people or wear a mask, preferably both? It’s just not that hard!
Look at that crowd, the vast majority of whom are vulnerable to getting sick from this thing either because of age, weight or some other underlying health problem that is common among people with those characteristics.
Maybe they all got lucky. I hope so. But this guy is asymptomatic and he probably spread it to people and somewhere along the line somebody’s going to get very sick and possibly die because he couldn’t do the simplest thing.
Why is this so hard???