Let’s raise our masks like our flag and defeat COVID-19 as one country

Our nation’s leaders have neither inspired nor compelled us to do what is necessary to fight the coronavirus pandemic, but enough is enough. It is time for citizens to fill the leadership void. It is up to us to shout from the rooftops that if we take the simple steps of acting responsibly and wearing masks, we can guard our health, rescue our economy, and hasten the return to normalcy.

We have all seen examples of the abandonment of prudence that quickly transformed the United States from a safe haven into the country with the most cases in the world. We have witnessed the crowded gatherings and the failure to wear masks. We have lost too much, and we have too much more to lose, to continue down the road of recklessness.

Already, more than 132,000 Americans are dead. We have endured lifestyle changes, business failures, and personal financial ruin. Despite our sacrifices and losses, the number of cases is rising in this state and in this country. Why? Because we lack cooperation. We have not unified to act against COVID-19. It is time for vigilance, and it is time to mask up.

If you were misled by earlier suggestions that masks aren’t a critical part of the solution, please hear this: the experts at the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control have now clarified that masks are important. Leading infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci explained in June that the misleading earlier statements were made because officials worried that masks would be too hard for healthcare workers to obtain if everyone were seeking them.

Masks are not 100 percent effective, but if I wear a mask that is 90 percent effective, and you wear a mask that is 90 percent effective, our teamwork becomes 99 percent effective for both of us. Let’s form that team of people working together to protect each other.

If you go to a store that doesn’t require patrons to wear masks, tell them you will be back if and when they do. If your family members consider going into public buildings unmasked, tell them you love them too much to see that happen. If you’re an employer who doesn’t require everyone to wear a mask, remember that dead workers produce nothing, and dead customers buy nothing. For example, the United States has already lost more than 100 meatpacking workers to this virus, and Kentucky alone has lost more than 585 consumers.

To slay this virus, we must band together as Team Kentucky and fight for our lives, for our health, and for the way things used to be. (Note: Gov. Andy Beshear signed an order making masks mandatory in many public spaces, starting Friday evening.) Cooperation should not be a tall order, but, sadly, it will require a change from our polarized present. It will take a new day, a new attitude, a new respect for others, a reunification, and a prioritization of human lives above politics.

Let that new day be today. We save more lives —maybe even our own — by not waiting until tomorrow. To be stubborn is to be deadly. Let us show our friends and neighbors that we care about them, and let us live to usher in a friendlier, happier, united America, by raising our masks like our flag.

David Anderson is the Blazer Professor of Economics at Centre College and a former community columnist for the Herald-Leader.