While I think most of us here understand this, it’s a simple concept that seems to elude far too many people in this country. Perhaps because it is so simple I think the discussion of this concept keeps getting overlooked so I want to break it down into a simple explanation that hopefully can be shared with anyone.
- Each person’s rights end at the tip of their nose, and so someone else’s rights begin at the tip of their nose.
- However, each person’s exhaled breath does not stop at the tip of the nose. It goes several inches farther. When you yell, sing, cough or sneeze it can go several feet farther. That breath you exhale is moisture laden and contains microscopic organisms. Sometimes those organisms cause sickness and use your breath to spread into the surrounding environment to make contact with other persons and infect them.
- That breath goes into the air that is shared by everyone. It is not just your air. You cannot ignore the right of others (once that air reaches their nose) to not have to breath in air that you have contaminated.
- Right now one of those organisms is a brand new one that causes a too often deadly sickness science and medicine is still trying to understand. It may seem like other familiar sicknesses but it is not.* If YOU are infected with that organism every breath you exhale sends that organism into the air that belongs to everyone. This is not a right to which you are entitled.
- So society is allowed to mandate that you do not send that organism beyond your nose IN SHARED PUBLIC SPACE! Face covering is the only way to do this. The most obvious answer is a mask. But a diving or space helmet or bubble suit is also acceptable.
- Another option is to hold your breath the entire time you are in public. I think most people are fine with you doing that. Or provide proof every minute of every hour of every day that you are free of the virus.
- So you do have the right to choose how to cover your nose and mouth but you do not have the right to spread infection to others. If you know a way to keep that virus to yourself without face covering then share it right away and become a global hero.
This rant was prompted by yet another news story about people claiming a right not to wear a mask. The discussion has become about masks and what someone is forced to wear which is the wrong discussion! The conversation needs to be changed to the real issue — that no one has the right to spread disease.
I know there are a lot of people out there who will ignore this and refuse to be convinced otherwise. But there are too many people who seem to be falling for the straw man argument about masks and need to be reminded about the real argument. I would also like to see certain Republican governors forced to explain why people have a right to spew contagion into the air shared by all instead of allowing them to hide behind the irrelevant defense of individual rights.
* Some may say what about the other times when people breath out flu and cold viruses but don’t wear a mask? Well, that’s nasty too and you really should be wearing a mask then, like they do in countries where common courtesy is more important. But even if you don’t the difference is most of those organisms have been around long enough that most people have some immunity, naturally or through vaccine, to stop or limit the infection. In other words they do not/no longer cause pandemics!