Talkback Tuesday

Is Provo’s face mask resolution a suggestion or needed mandate? (Aug. 21)

Ah, yes … the problem with enforcing a mask mandate. Such a good idea! As is a ban on texting while driving. Enforcement? Aw, worry about that later. A law has worked so well to prevent texting while driving.

The focus on positivity rate makes little sense when there are uncontrolled variables included in the calculation. The most obvious one is that fewer people overall are feeling ill due to not being in a cold/flu season, so fewer people are being tested. Those who do get tested based on their symptoms — which in many ways mirror cold/flu symptoms — are testing positive for COVID at a higher rate than in March-April.

The main reason for a low positivity rate (assuming overall testing numbers don’t rise significantly) is to get back to where contract tracing is viable, as we just have too many positive cases each day at this point. (About 100 a day in Utah County.) Given the same number of tests, a 3% positive rate would mean only about 30-40 people to track each day. Yet why would the number of tests given remain the same if fewer people are contracting the virus? Everything else remaining the same, the positivity rate will drop once we hit cold/flu season again, due to more people opting to be tested.

Let’s get a low-cost antibody test available to everyone who wants one, as often as they want one. If it is determined that they have had the virus, give them a card they can show to the jackboots who will be enforcing Joe’s (or the activists on the Provo City Council) mask mandate. — c00kster

Is Provo’s face mask resolution a suggestion or needed mandate? (Aug. 21)

If you have any consideration for others’ health, wear a mask. When cases spike as schools restart we will all ask ourselves, why didn’t we act for safety. — Tim Carruthers

Should Provo residents who do not wish to catch or spread the virus to their elderly loved ones be at the maskless mercy of those who care nothing about public health and safety? That seems to be solely up to the Provo politicians who go with the will of campaign contributors. Want your grandparents and Stake Patriarchs to be safe? Then donate. — Moksha

Provo council passes face mask resolution, unmasks plan for ordinance at emergency meeting (Aug. 20)

Taiwan, on the doorstep of China, has had 485 cases of Covid-19 and 7 deaths. They did it by immediately wearing masks, distancing and tracing. They haven’t shut down a single business. Maybe Taiwan’s example will help you process what works well.

America without leadership in the pandemic is a mess. Weaklings who can’t put up with the minor inconvenience of wearing a mask to protect family and friends are not what America is about! (Disclaimer — I’m not including those who can’t wear a mask for a medical reason.) — Talon Jensen

It’s not like this was Taiwan’s first rodeo with wearing masks. There was a stigma connected to mask wearing before their 2002 SARS outbreak. Perhaps by our next pandemic more people in the US will feel comfortable wearing masks right away.

Comparing any other country to the US is apples to oranges. No one would confuse our cultural diversity with that of Taiwan. No one would compare our vast land to their tiny island and not see that there are many reasons why perhaps their healthcare system is different, as well as their sense of community. Most of us are not Taiwanese, for better or for worse.

I get that you don’t like Trump. But are the 12,469 deaths from H1N1 attributable to Obama’s failed leadership? A much less deadly virus that 60 million Americans contracted. More would have, had they not already had antibodies in their systems from prior related infections.

I feel that most people should choose to wear a mask in public when they can’t maintain adequate spacing from others. I don’t know the reasons why they don’t, but have gotten past my “righteous anger” when I see someone who opts to not wear a mask when they probably should. Are they less American for not wearing a mask? Not in my mind. — c00kster