For safety's sake, masks required in White House, but not in Alaska stores

The White House began requiring employees to wear face masks Monday to try to make the working environment safer.

“As an additional layer of protection, we are requiring everyone who enters the West Wing to wear a mask or face covering,” read the memo, which was distributed to staff members through the White House management office, the New York Times reported.

This comes at a time when Gov. Mike Dunleavy has backtracked on face coverings in retail stores, following the political lead created by Trump and the right-wing media.

Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz has gone along with Dunleavy, perhaps because setting a standard for Anchorage that differ from the state standard would create more confusion and political strife.

Alaska is headed in the wrong direction on this.

I wrote here April 29 that the requirement by Costco to mandate face coverings for employees and customers was an important health safety measure, one that other grocery chains have refused to match.

In that column, I said the state health mandates contained a contradiction that was needlessly confusing.

Face coverings were required in nonessential businesses, but not in essential businesses, such as grocery stores. The rules for grocery stores mention nothing at all about face coverings.

But the rules for non-essential retail businesses required customers and employees to wear masks as of April 24. Anchorage had the same rule.

In the Municipality of Anchorage, the rules for non-essential retail operations were that “Employees and customers shall wear face coverings. Businesses should post signage notifying customers of the requirement to wear face coverings at entrance(s).”

Instead of extending the rule to require face masks in all retail stores, the Dunleavy administration and Berkowitz dropped it entirely.

On May 8, the Dunleavy administration replaced it with a statement saying it “strongly encouraged" that face coverings be worn by employees and customers in nonessential retail stores. The Anchorage rule follows suit.

The rules for essential businesses, such as grocery stores, say nothing about face masks. They say that people should cover coughs or sneezes not with their hands, but with their sleeves or elbows.

The point of wearing face masks is to protect other people, not the person wearing the mask.

The Centers for Disease Control says the use of face coverings will “slow the spread of the virus and help people who may have the virus and do not know it from transmitting it to others.”

White House officials didn’t wake up to this until two people fairly close to the president came down from COVID-19. Trump has reportedly expressed fears that he might look ridiculous in a mask. But not to worry. No president has done more to earn the ridicule of the American people.

The statement by Costco about its decision to require masks is one that Dunleavy and all other politicians should pay attention to.

“In short, we believe this is the right thing to do under the current circumstances. Although some may disagree with this policy or question its effectiveness, we’re choosing to err on the side of safety in our shopping environments. Costco has continued to operate during this crisis as an essential business in all of our communities, and our employees are on the front lines. As part of a community, we believe this simple act of safety and courtesy is one that Costco members and employees can undertake together.”

Safety and courtesy are good reasons to wear masks when you are around other people during the pandemic.

A veteran and widely respected Fairbanks nurse wrote this stark reminder on Facebook about why we should wear masks:

“Now I think will probably scare the average person, but when I see you in public, without a mask, the image that flashes in my head is you, with 4 nurses around your hospital bed, flipping your naked body over onto your abdomen, in an effort to help your lungs survive the Coronavirus. It’s not a pretty sight. Sure we’ve been lucky so far with low virus numbers, but it’s not gone, and you, without a mask are why it’ll be back.”