I am, in the words of Gov. Cox, an “extreme masker.” I wear a mask in grocery stores and gas stations. I wear a mask when coaching unvaccinated children in tee-ball. I have been the only person wearing a mask at church and at my office. I have even, on two separate occasions, made public comments urging the Salt Lake County Council to allow a public health order requiring universal masking at schools to go into effect. If Gov. Cox’s characterization of certain residents of his state as “extreme maskers” describes anyone, it describes me.
Still, I was hurt by the governor’s characterization. My motivations are quite pure. I don’t want people to get sick. I don’t want people to die of COVID-19. I don’t want others to die because our hospitals are overcrowded. We have experienced enough loss and collective trauma over the past year and a half. We are in a fight for our lives, which has pushed me to this extremism.
I know masks are just one layer of protection. Like the governor, I want enough people to get vaccinated so our state can finally stop operating in crisis mode. I want people — particularly in settings like my seven-year-old’s and nine-year-old’s school classes where no one has been vaccinated — to wear masks. I want sick people to quarantine and exposed people to get tested. Unlike the governor, I have no meaningful authority to influence people’s behavior, so I resort to extremist behavior like covering my mouth and nose and hoping others join me.
I hope that Gov. Cox will join me in this extremist campaign to save the lives of Utahns. And I hope he brings whatever executive powers he hasn’t already signed away to the legislature with him to the fight.
Zachary Noyce, Midvale
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