Note: This is my personal opinion and it is separate and distinct from the opinion of the Dent County Health Center and the Board of Trustees.
When you choose to drink alcohol in the comfort of your home, there is no one there to stop you. That is your decision. But, when you drink behind the wheel of a car, that can land in you jail.
Your “freedoms” are not absolute. Your right to free speech does not include the right to yell “fire” in a crowded room, or incite a riot. Your right to own a gun does not include the right to murder someone with that gun. Your right to vote doesn’t include the right to prevent others from voting, or to vote twice. Your right to raise your kids as you please does not include the right to endanger their health or abuse them. The list goes on and on…
So, I ask, why is COVID any different?
We have been quarantining people for two hundred years. We still regularly quarantine people for highly infectious diseases such as tuberculosis. Some people live with tuberculosis for years and never know they have it, and then they can give it to others who can then die from it. Tuberculosis, like COVID, is also airborne.
We require people to quarantine with tuberculosis for long periods of time. We require them to have daily directly observed medication doses. We do this to keep the disease from spreading.
Until recently, in many states, knowingly having sex without disclosing your HIV status could result in criminal liability if your partner contracts HIV as a result. No one considered that a “breach of your rights.”
For as long as schools have been in existence, kids that run a fever or throw up or have diarrhea or lice are sent home. Often, they are not allowed to return until they have a doctor’s note saying they can come back to school. Have we been doing it wrong all these years? Should we let the kids stay at school and spread these diseases around? When I was in school, many of my classmates missed several weeks due to things like infectious mononucleosis or chickenpox. They survived. Did their “right to an education” trump the other student’s rights to a safe and healthy environment?
People are now hiding the fact that they are testing positive for COVID, often with at-home tests. They continue to go to work or school without regard for their neighbors and coworkers. People have died as a result, and undoubtedly more will continue to die from these actions.
I am fully vaccinated and boosted, and I am around COVID every day. I wear my mask when I’m out because even though its unlikely, I couldn’t live with myself if I knew I was responsible for transmitting COVID to someone else and they had any kind of bad outcome. I do not want to be the reason for someone’s death or long term disability.
It’s not a question of my freedom. It’s simply a question of doing the right thing. Of caring about those around me. Of wanting to help end this terrible pandemic. I don’t want to see another person die from COVID. We’ve seen too many die already, and so many more narrowly avoid death. Even more are still recovering and may never fully recover.
I care about my neighbors. I care about my family and my coworkers. I care about the strangers in the store. I do not want to give ANY of them COVID.
The most reasonable thing I can think of that might possess someone to hide their COVID status is to make sure they can feed their family or pay their bills. If that’s you, I’m sorry our society has failed you. Please, ask for help. There are so many resources available right now.
Right now I feel like a parent who has spent the last two years telling the toddler not to touch the burning hot coals. With this recent Cole County court decision, I feel like I’ve been instructed to stand back and do nothing while the toddler exercises his “right” to just belly flop right into the fire.
This couldn’t come at a worse time. The holiday season has already lead to a large increase in COVID cases. Schools choosing to allow kids to defy quarantine orders will undoubtedly lead to unmitigated spread throughout our sparsely vaccinated community. The toddler is not just jumping face first into the roaring bonfire, they soaked their clothes in gasoline first.
At this point there’s nothing left to do except watch as the impending disaster unfolds. As frustrating as it is, you can bet that I will still be there to do what I can to save lives through vaccinations, monoclonal antibodies, and whatever else it may be. I’ll still be there because even when my toddler doesn’t listen to me, I still love them. I still comfort them when they hurt themselves doing something I told them not to do. I guess, sometimes, you just have to let them learn the hard way.
I just pray the hard way isn’t as bad as I think it’s going to be.
