Wear a mask: Your idiot is showing

A video surfaced online this week of a Mitchell, South Dakota resident being removed from a school board meeting by two police officers for refusing to wear a mask. 

According to the Mitchell Republic, Deb Olson, the school board president, offered paper masks to those who did not bring their own mask at the beginning of the meeting. The man did not take one and then was told to either wear a mask or leave. 

He refused to do both. 

After the police were called, he told them “I will not leave willingly,” and then was removed by force and had to be threatened with a taser. 

The cops informed him prior to removing him that being removed by force would be an additional fee. All he said was “I don’t care.” 

This incident isn’t the only of its kind. 

People across the nation are refusing to wear their masks. 

But why? What is so hard about wearing a mask? 

While at first it might have been challenging to get used to wearing a mask, it has been six months since the first wave of community shutdowns and six month of mask. 

We should be use to it by now. 

Having required face masks in a pandemic shouldn’t be a political topic. Why are we acting like wearing a mask is a debate? 

Anti-maskers like to point to the beginning of the pandemic when experts were not recommending face masks. They have held onto the idea that masks are ineffective since April. It is now the end of September. 

This is the first pandemic anyone has lived through. We are all learning and adjusting as we go, including the experts. They did not recommend face masks at the beginning because it was the beginning and were still researching the benefits of masks. 

In case you haven’t been keeping up with the development — masks help lower the chance COVID-19 is spread between two people to as low as 1.5%. 

1.5% chance of spreading a potentially deadly virus and there are still people refusing to wear them for a 40 minute school board meeting. 

And even if 10 months down the line research shows masks don’t work, which as of right now we know they do, what harm would it be to have worn a mask? 

It might be a little annoying, hot, uncomfortable at times or maybe it caused a little acne.

But what if it saves someone’s life? Or has the potential to? 

Acne and discomfort isn’t the same as someone’s life. 

We need to all put other people’s safety and well being above our slight uncomfortness. We have to watch out for each other and care for one another. 

We also have to keep up with the news. Information is changing daily, we should not be holding onto information experts gave in March. 

Despite what it might feel like, it is not March. The world kept spinning and now it’s September and in September we all know masks are effective. 

Be kind to one another and wear a mask. Don’t cause a scene at a school board meeting over something as little as a piece of clothing.