The sign on the hardware store informed us that “CDC recommendations (currently, to wear masks indoors) were followed.” It didn’t look that way to me. So, I asked the manager, “Why aren’t you wearing a mask?”

“That’s the CDC recommendation,” he said. “It’s not a mandate.”

And that’s when I knew we need mandates. Mandates meant I could have avoided this risk, and even this conversation.

Some people choose risky behavior. They need laws to prompt them to wear seat belts and to stop them from driving drunk or smoking on airplanes. The only reason we don’t have to argue with neighbors who furnish kids with alcohol, with drivers who run red lights or with grocers who sell contaminated lettuce is that we have laws and mandates that do the heavy lifting for us.

Mandates keep the peace by bringing clarity and penalty of law where people would otherwise be making bad choices. And nowhere is clarity more important that mandating public mask wearing during a pandemic.

Mask wearing helps prevent the spread (and mutation) of COVID and reduces the severity of infections when they happen, two Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports confirmed last February.

Sure, maskless shoppers cite medical, philosophical, religious or personal excuses, but we all know the real reason people don’t mask: It’s not mandated.

We shouldn’t have to put up with it. It would be nicer if people just did the right thing, but because they don’t, we need mask mandates.

Jenny Yasi
Freeport

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