After reading this, wearing a mask should not be an issue

This is post (edited for clarity) written by my wife Rachel in response to comments made by a person of influence on Facebook. Rachel beautifully articulates with compassion and empirical data why maskwearing should not be a debate.

This post was not about shutting down the country. It was about the inconsistent application of sanitation and protection measures, which for the record, is in large part at fault for the second wave.

The flippant attitude about a virus that has stolen the family members of hundreds of thousands of people in America is disrespectful and surprising for someone so committed to the right to life and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus was clear that we should esteem others far more than ourselves. The number of mislabeled deaths is not a reason to act like the virus is inconsequential, if anything it is proof that the absolutely overwhelmed medical system NEEDS our help. I can tell you this...in the 30 years my sister has been a nurse in NYC there has never been a time when she ran as many codes in a year that they had to run a week at the height of the spike in the spring.

The government should not HAVE to shut us down, should not HAVE to mandate masking. We should be willing to do that no matter what because someone else's grandmother and child and mother and father are THAT important.

Instead, people walk around saying "live free or die", "this is tyranny", "my body my choice (ironically)" and all that nonsense still proclaiming the gospel of Christ. There is NOTHING holy about minimizing the loss of life either directly or indirectly from this virus, and certainly nothing holy or patriotic about shirking our responsibility to protect our brothers and sisters. There is also no point in pitting one evil against another. The greed of this country is coming to roost in our children, our economy, and our health.

The virus did not cause an uptick in mental health issues, it uncovered disparities in access to diagnosis, care, and treatment. It did not cause an economic collapse; it uncovered that underfunded schools are the true backbone of the economy and low wage-earning front-line staff across sectors are the circulatory system and it uncovered that the wage gap and its effect on the vast majority of American's ability to save for just this type of event.

If we were a more enlightened and higher functioning society, we could have faced this pandemic with far more grace, we could have protected the mental and physical health of most people and still enacted thoughtful, consistent, and effective sanitization and mitigation measures; we could have stayed open in large part. Unfortunately, we are not very enlightened, and instead, personal freedom to do what we want when we want is a stumbling block for us all. It has been used as a spade to divide left and right, blue and red, and whatever else you can think of. That is stupid and unproductive. I am no less a patriot for wanting to ensure we minimize loss of life across the board.

This is not an all or nothing game. We can fight child trafficking and support mental health, we can invest in virtual education and support meaningful connections. We can decide as a people that all of us are important and figure out how to live in this world cooperatively and protect people from this virus and all the other contagions that will come in this connected world.

As far as the CDC statistics quoted that 2020 has seen less death than 2019...you take data out of context. You may feel your thought on death rates in 2020 seem novel but when looked at in context and in totality, what you are saying is completely false. The 2020 data is not complete, good data in any year takes time to collect, clean, and aggregate 2020 data is only posted through June. That being said, I downloaded the data myself and ran the chart. When comparing Jan-June 2019 to the same period in 2020, we are up 5% or 1,147,510.00 people. I have attached a picture of the data and chart here and the source is: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/provisional-tables.htm

When people as influential and important as you spout propaganda about plandemics and downplay the need for caution and prudence, when you post pictures of cocktail parties and girls nights out for your business, you disrespect the memories and losses of each of those suicide victims, covid victims, closed small businesses, first responders and exhausted front line medical staff. I know you think it's enlightened, but it is tone-deaf.

I hear you say…get your vitamins, get your healthy food, get your exercise, get your sunlight, you will be fine… which totally disregards the 17.6 million Americans in rural and urban food deserts or the 53% of Americans living paycheck to paycheck. America of 2020 is not America of 1980 when you pulled yourself up by the "boot" straps. The wage gap in the US is disgusting and since 1979 while American workers have boosted the output of goods for employers by 69.6%, American employers have only boosted employee pay by 11.6%. https://www.epi.org/publication/swa-wages-2019/

This shut down is disastrous not because anyone is violating your rights, it's disastrous because America cares more about corporations than Americans.

Rachel T. Botts