The decision to reopen bars and restaurant dining rooms across the country has already generated its share of controversy. There have been concerns—not unfounded—that open dining rooms are just an invitation for the further spread of the coronavirus. And, indeed, cases spiked so rapidly in Florida, California, and Texas that the officials have decided to close down the restaurant dining rooms again.
But there is another contingent that has another concern: the reopened restaurants are requiring them to wear masks. How dare they infringe upon individual rights that way??? Business Insider has published a roundup of anti-masker behavior so vile that restaurants all around the country—in California, Texas, Michigan, Colorado, and Arkansas—to have decided, on their own accord, to close up again. At least one attack, in a McDonald’s in Oakland, resulted in the employee requiring hospitalization.
“Staff have been harassed, called names, and had objects and liquids thrown at them,” Hugo’s Tacos said in a statement posted on social media explaining its decision to close its two LA taco stands. “A mask isn’t symbolic of anything other than our desire to keep our staff healthy.”
The saddest part is that the anti-maskers comprise a very small minority of Hugo’s customers; others organized a GoFundMe last month that raised $45,000.
The anti-maskers have not been chastened, however. Instead, they’ve turned on the Business Insider reporter, Kate Taylor.
This particular anti-masker is wrong. As Taylor reported in her story, “One model from the University of Washington estimates that if 95% of the population in the US were to wear masks, it could prevent roughly 33,000 coronavirus deaths by October.”
To which we add, if you don’t want to wear a mask for whatever reason, stay home. That is why we have delivery.