‘Love thy neighbor’ doesn’t also include ‘unless it’s inconvenient for you’

Six months after watching my father take his last breath at the age of 68, the thought of my own mortality slipped into my pandemic prison.

It was only a fleeting moment because my health is not bad, but a close encounter of the coronavirus kind will do that.

As of this writing I’m in a self-imposed isolation after learning that I shared the same space with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.

With the rate of the virus spreading, it’s bound to happen to everyone — from people who think it’s a hoax or blown out of proportion to those who take every precaution necessary.

For most people it will be a minor inconvenience with mild to moderate symptoms, such as a fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. Others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, will experience more severe illness and death.

The vast majority of people recover and many people don’t even know they have the virus.

That’s the tricky part, and the reason why I’m sleeping on a futon in the guest room and checking my temperature regularly.

That’s why more testing and contact tracing is important, to find the virus before it spreads.

While my risk is considered low because we practiced social distancing, plus my age, it was also one of the few times my face was not covered.

Cloth face coverings have been recommended for everyone by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since early April, but a report released this week by the CDC showed their effectiveness.

In early May a hair stylist in Springfield, Missouri, got sick but continued to work for eight days when they got a positive test for the virus that causes COVID-19. Another hair stylist working in the same salon also got sick and kept working until also testing positive.

Between the two, they saw 139 clients after developing symptoms but the stylists and clients both wore some type of face coverings during their interactions that ranged from 15 to 45 minutes. The local health department offered testing, had everyone self-quarantine for 14 days and monitored them. All 67 clients who volunteered to be tested came back negative for COVID-19. A month later, interviews with 104 of the 139 clients found none that developed symptoms.

The two stylists did not wear face coverings between appointments and four close contacts of one stylist outside the salon later tested positive or developed symptoms.

“With the potential for presymptomatic and asymptomatic transmission, widespread adoption of policies requiring face coverings in public settings should be considered to reduce the impact and magnitude of additional waves of COVID-19,” the report concludes.

On Monday, the Springfield city council passed an ordinance that requires face coverings in most public spaces. But first, they heard five hours of testimony from the public and more than 100 people protested against it before the meeting.

Down the road in Branson there was an eight-hour debate before a vote was postponed.

Butler County has a 56% higher rate of cases per population than the Springfield area. The total number of confirmed cases here has doubled in just under a month.

Visitors to the Butler County Courthouse were asked to wear face coverings starting this week after an outbreak there and national retailers are asking the same of their customers.

Of course, there’s backlash because only during an election year will recommendations from doctors become a political litmus test.

Had I not forgotten my mask at home, only one of the handful of times I’ve not had one in public since April, there would be no reason for me to take an actual test. No reason to worry about getting my family sick or spreading the virus to someone who is at higher risk of illness or death.

My father was not much of a religious person, but even he knew “love thy neighbor” didn’t also include “unless it’s inconvenient for you.”