As of Monday, masks mandatory in KC. As of this minute, we all need to wear one
As of Monday, face coverings must be worn inside in public places in Kansas City. And we all need to take this order seriously, both for the health of our neighbors and for the health of our economy.
We’ve seen day after day of record-breaking increases in new COVID-19 cases, in part because we haven’t been doing nearly enough to slow transmission of the coronavirus. Masks do save lives, but only if we wear them.
The order making masks mandatory, which was issued by Mayor Quinton Lucas on Friday afternoon, will be in effect through at least July 12. It won’t require business owners to provide the required masks.
If you’re one of those going around barefaced asking, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” you know the answer already. When Cain told God that in Genesis, he was trying to hide the fact that he’d already offed poor unsuspecting Abel out in a field somewhere. When you refuse to wear a mask, you’re probably denying to yourself that you could be doing serious harm without even knowing it. But you don’t have to be like that ghoul who coughed on a baby on purpose to spread this virus.
“No, I don’t like wearing a mask,” Rex Archer, the Kansas City health director, said in an interview. “But Jiminy Christmas, if I put somebody in the hospital or worse, that would stay with me for the rest of my life.”
Transmissions are happening locally, he said, not only at nursing homes and meatpacking plants but also at birthday parties, funerals and private businesses, including a bakery and a pet care provider.
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the same thing in a different way at a White House news conference on Friday. Masks are crucial, he said, because “a risk for you is not just isolated to you. ...The only way we’re going to end it is by ending it together.”
At a news conference announcing the Kansas City order, Lucas said there’s nothing political about the decision or the issue: “We’re taking these actions to try to keep people safe. Every medical and health professional I have talked to says masks are a good idea.”
Archer had this advice: “Don’t get hung up over the mandate. We should be doing this because we care about each other. We’ve got to do this to save lives and save our businesses.”
David Alvey, mayor of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, who is issuing his own order, spoke at the news conference, too, and said that the mask he wears to protect others from the coronavirus is as basic as the hat he wears to prevent sunburn. “If we don’t stop the virus,” he said, “the virus will stop us.”
Johnson County officials don’t see this yet, which is unfortunate. But Archer predicted that they will. “Inevitably, this is going to be everyplace.”
This story was originally published June 26, 2020 at 3:58 PM.