Oregon Gov. Kate Brown is responding to the state’s COVID-19 resurgence with the delta variant. She ordered this week that mask mandates in public indoor spaces are back in place.
People are not pleased with the ever-changing requirements. Mandates to wear a mask and getting a vaccine violates personal liberities, some say. Some segements of society say that Americans are free to take risks even if it endangers their live or the lives of others. People take health risks every day with choices that are harmful.
The number one role of government is the protect the people and keep them secure. If the United States was facing imminent attack from a foreign source, the people would be up in arms if government did nothing in response.
There are more than a few social media posts from COVID- deniers and anti-vaxxers, laying in a hospital bed, hooked to machines imploring people to take COVID-19 seriously and get a vaccine.
Whatever her faults, Gov. Brown and her health advisors are making the decisions they believe is best to stem the tide of new cases of infections and hospitalizations. It is expected that if Oregon remains on its current trajectory, there will be a shortage of up to 500 hospital beds by September. That should alarm everyone.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said for months that most people wore a mask in public settings and received one of the vaccines, we could see the end of pandemic. There are reports that some who have been fully vaccinated got sick with COVID, but their condition is not to level of requiring hospitalization.
Americans are free to make choices they feel is best for them. For some that means not allowing a COVID vaccine to go into their arm. For more than 150 million Americans that choice is to be vaccinated.
COVID is not going away. We can’t know what other variants other than delta are lurking in our future. That’s why the governor is making decisions to keep the people of Oregon safe. That is her job. —LAZ