Dr. Christine Grady is a nurse-bioethicist in charge of the National Institutes of Health Department of Bioethics. She’s also married to Dr. Anthony Fauci. (Wow—imagine the conversations they have on their daily 3.5-mile power walks.) Interviewed with her husband by CBS anchor Norah O’Donnell (in print, because Il Duce can’t stand seeing Dr. Fauci outshine and out-fact him on TV), Dr. Grady says the practical and philosophical argument for wearing masks to stop coronavirus is a “slam dunk“:
…masks shouldn’t be divisive. It’s a relatively easy way to protect one’s self and others. And so for public health reasons, I think everybody should do it. From an ethical perspective there is always this tension between what you ask people to do that feels like a restriction of their liberty and what is required for public health. And in this case, it seems like a slam dunk. It’s not restricting liberty much, and it’s very helpful for public health [Dr. Christine Fauci, interviewed by Norah O’Donnell, InStyle, 2020.07.15].
Dr. Grady says the hard bioethical questions around coronavirus have more to do with harms and hard choices that arise when we don’t get serous about masks and prevention:
…Starting with the issues around what do you do when a hospital gets to capacity and has no more beds or no more equipment? What do you do for health-care workers when they don’t have adequate PPE and are putting themselves at risk? Issues around end-of-life care for people who are dying alone and there are no visitors allowed and no extra support for them. Issues around public-health measures that need to be in place and the restrictions quote unquote on individual liberty. Issues around testing and immunity. Issues around distribution of health-care resources. I mean, there are just a million issues that have an ethical string to them [Grady, in O’Donnell, 2020.07.15].
Make Dr. Grady’s job easier, Make her husband’s job easier. Make everyone’s job easier. Wear your mask.
Hey you teachers & profs! Help your students win $1 million dollars by designing a mask that is cool enough to appeal to 15-24 year olds. Energize your home-bound students with the Next-Gen Mask Challenge.
At least 3 corporations signed on. Showing these CEOs expect the virus to hang around – the deadline for submissions is, October 22, 2020.
https://www.xprize.org/prizes/nextgenmask
Summary: https://www.designworldonline.com/next-x-prize-challenge-1-million-for-a-better-face-mask-design/
AMEN!
This is a short article about how Southern GOP politicians are killing people and destroying their states. It explains why Southerners won’t wear masks and do behave in other ways that are so risky to their health. I found it quite sad.
is.gd/LsIgcy
Pretty sad, Debbo. One wonders if GOP wants to force all the poors onto reservations so they can be basically ignored while the wealthy slurp up every penny of entitlements for themselves.
Rochester MN has mandated the wearing of masks in all public places. I haven’t seen anyone throw a fuss about it yet. I
Great article, Ms. Geelsdottior. Thank you for that.
Jenny, it appears Rochesterians are simply more sensible.
Or maybe they’re all just weak from carbon dioxide poisoning. :-D
Well, Mr. H, we don’t know if all Rochesterites are more “sensible”, but we know how their government is being operated. Probably not by Libertarians, either.
Mr. Oakes, what say you about government mandating masks, or khaki pants, or pointed shoes and banning hats? grudznick, who is sensible, admits this is a public health issue, so it is somewhat more like banning leaving used toilet paper in a public park without picking it up than it is mandating pointed shoes.