Spread health, not COVID-19

The brilliant Bruce Mackinnon nails it once again (May 5 cartoon). The question we should be asking the partiers, the anti-maskers, the vaccine hesitant is this: are you a balloon-head? Have you really thought through what the sign you are holding is saying?

Take, for instance, your claim that masking and social distancing in public spaces should be voluntary, and that you should have the right to choose NOT to follow the rules.

Let's look at this. Would your right to not follow the rules only apply to yourself, or would you extend this right to all others? If you say “of course, the right should apply to everyone,” then is it not reasonable to assume that others would exercise this right? And what, then, would be the foreseeable consequences of everyone exercising this right? I shouldn't need to explain where I'm going with this, but I will anyway.

Unless you're one of the lunatic fringes that believe the COVID-19 is not real — in which case it's highly unlikely you're reading a letter-to-the-editor in a newspaper — then you must realize that YOU are being kept safe by all those other people who ARE following the public health rules.

Positive public health messaging is itself like a virus, but one we actually want to encourage. Dr. Strang and Premier Rankin repeatedly ask those listening to their briefings to “do the right thing.” But the people who tune in, or even those watching the news or reading this paper, are not the problem.

The problem lies with two, sometimes overlapping, groups. The first are those who get misinformation from the “echo chambers” of social media. The second are those for whom social norms are largely irrelevant; it's not that they hold false ideas but that they just don't care. The former group are more likely to carry placards on

Citadel Hill proclaiming their Godgiven right to spread infection, the latter more likely to post their tickets in Instagram with an obnoxious hashtag.

The challenge for those reading this letter is to speak to those who would not normally read a newspaper; not in a scolding, confrontational way — this is important — but in a questioning way. Ask them to explain their views. Ask them how they think their actions might affect others. Ask them what THEY think would slow the spread of COVID.

Chances are those that you would normally associate with believe in more-or-less the same things you do. So, it's vitally important that you encourage those at the edges of your social circle to speak with people at the edges of their circles and so on.

Don't spread COVID, spread public health!

D. Mark Laing, Halifax