LETTER: Suck it up, use masks, be tough like our ancestors, beat Covid

To Ozaukee Press:

In Japan, people are crammed into subways and they crowd the bars and restaurants, and the country has a rather elderly population. Meanwhile, in Wisconsin in the process of going about our business at the time of this writing, we have racked up a death toll from Covid-19 of around 800 people, 200 less than Japan.

Not bad, except Japan has a population 21 times greater than the Badger State. They are clearly better than us.

One of the reasons they are more successful at fighting the disease than us is that practically everyone in Japan wears masks. Every country that has gotten out
of lockdown either has a mandatory mask policy or people chose to wear them.

In downtown Milwaukee, on the East Side, and going up into the northeastern suburbs, you see most people wearing face masks. But go outside these areas, and the number of people who wear them drops way off.

There have been a lot of recalcitrant attitudes around wearing face masks that defy explanation. Sure, these face coverings are not fun to wear, but we have a war going on with this disease.

Our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents put up a lot more sacrifice than this requires during World War II, and for the most part they did it without complaining, resisting or sending death threats to FDR over rationing.

There is a lot of projecting going on, with some thinking that we are wearing masks to avoid getting Covid. Most of us who wear masks do it to prevent others from getting the disease we may unknowingly have.

It is time for us to suck it up, do what we have to, and beat this disease. Covid is not going away on its own, and if we don’t take proactive measures like wearing face masks, along with testing, tracing and other coherent policies, we’ll be stuck with it. Our economy will suffer, and so will hundreds of thousands of people, physically and very painfully for months if not years.

You have to ask yourself: Do you want us to keep going on this way?

Keith Schmitz
Milwaukee