Mask up

Every theory about why COVID-19 cases have surged in the past couple of weeks in Milam County is just that, a theory.

But, as County Judge Steve Young has pointed out a number of times, certainly part of the problem is that too many people appear simply to not be taking the pandemic seriously.

When you are in public, just look around and see the number of persons choosing not to wear masks.

Young said at a meeting of Milam civic and community leaders Thursday in Cameron that some have taken the—right and proper—phased re-opening of the state to mean the virus problem has eased to the point where such precautions are no longer necessary.

Maybe you will get away with it. Perhaps you can get away with going maskless and never get COVID-19.

But maybe you have been exposed, have no symptoms and spread the potentially-deadly virus to someone you love. Or someone you don’t even know.

How is that “getting away with it?”

What’s even sadder is that you may never know.

This society is so good at doing things just to make the “doer” feel good, things that, sadly, too often have no real effect on the situation. We could quote you chapter and verse but we won’t. There’s nothing wrong with trying to help someone under any circumstance.

We are wired that way and it’s a good thing.

But, why wouldn’t we want to do something that actually helps not only us as individuals but every person with whom we come in contact?

Or to be more accurate, with whom we don’t come in contact.

Notice how many senior citizens are masked up? Notice how, so far, Milam senior citizens are doing really well in avoiding the virus and how many of their younger counterparts are not doing so well? (See story, page 1A).

Mask up. You would only be protecting two kinds of people. You and everybody else.