Gaslighting the universal right to breathe: the flawed logic of anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers

A teacher protesting the banning of mask mandates in her state of Florida recently stated:

“I keep thinking of this one thing that Gov. DeSantis said, ‘We need our kids to breathe.’ I immediately thought, ‘How can they breathe if they’re dead?’ ” (CNN, August 15)

Justin Kanew, the Tennessee father of a five-year-old girl who recently spoke at a school board meeting to oppose, among other things, Governor Lee’s executive order allowing opt-outs for student mask mandates, pointed out a difference in risk to which anti-mask governors are apparently oblivious in a later tweet:

“If we’re wrong, you wore a mask. Whoops, sorry. If you’re wrong, your kid gets sick or someone you love dies. Seems like a pretty simple choice.” (Twitter post, August 19, 2021)

Testimony from Travis Campbell, a 43-year-old unvaccinated Virginia man, makes plain what it means to be unvaccinated and sick from the Delta variant of COVID. The following words were tweeted from his hospital bed:

“I have never been this sick in my life!! My whole family has covid, i truly regret not getting the vaccine…The 2nd wave is coming and is going to be stronger than the first. When i hear my kids with the rattle lung cough, when they say they are so dizzy they are getting sick, or they or I are dehydrated from the diarrhea, i realize I could have prevented this. Im over the stupid conspiracies, its time to be rational and protective. Its not worth being stubborn like i did.” (NBC News, August 3, 2021)

To argue against mask mandates in the name of defending children’s right to breathe is grotesquely cynical on the part of a politician. It is evidence that the politician is much more concerned with losing votes than losing lives.

On the part of parents who claim they are defending their children’s rights by rejecting mask mandates and vaccines, they have lost track of a fundamental concept that Kanew’s five-year-old was able to grasp when she asked her father why she had to wear a mask at school, when so many other children showed up without masks:

“Because we want to take care of other people.”

For parents, “other people” should include their own children.

From a Facebook post by Travis Campbell on July 25:

“I’m testifying to all my bulletproof friends that’s holding out, it’s time to protect your family, it’s not worth getting long term lung damage or death please go get the vaccine.”

A 31-year-old Missouri man, Daryl Barker, who opposed getting a vaccine, was given a 20% chance of survival when he first checked into the hospital in Lake of the Ozarks. He had no pre-existing conditions. Father of a six-year-old son, Barker also gave testimony from his hospital bed, saying, while struggling to catch his breath, “…we’re a strong conservative family, but that little boy out there is the reason to have a vaccine.” (Associated Press, July 29, 2021)

Freedom is not meaningful without a social contract. That is, freedom is not meaningful if you don’t take care of your family or your community.

It’s time to be rational and protective. It’s way past time.

“If you only like democracy when it goes your way, you don’t actually like democracy.” — Justin Kanew

— Carter, Springfield-Eugene SURJ Messaging Team