Letters: COVID-19, face masks, Defend the Tri and more | June 16

One size not right for all in COVID

Among your usual plethora of anti-Trump garbage on Sunday (May 10) was an article by Washington Post writer Dana Milbank. Therein he compares the development of the atomic bomb with the present COVID-19 crisis and goes through a downright silly assumption of how he thought President Trump would have acted after a fictitious warning by Einstein. According to Mr. Milbank’s distorted sense of reality, Trump would have farmed out the development of the bomb to the states. Talk about your inanity! This is near the top.

He does all this to cast aspersions on President Trump’s assigning responsibility to the states. In my and most rational peoples’ opinion(s), this was the right thing to do, and in fact I don’t think it went far enough. The one-size-fits-all for the nation is just not right. Over 50% of the counties in the U.S. do not have even one case, so why punish them and their economies by useless restrictions? Also all of the grocery and many other stores have been operating without damage. It seems to me that many businesses such as barbershops and beauty parlors should be operating with reasonable restraints. Oh well, I suspect that all this would confuse Mr. Milbank.

Wearing masks is step forward

The May 31 Tri-City Herald had three letters wanting to re-open the State’s economy.

Our governor, unlike our president, has set down science-based goals to reopen the economy in phases that must be met in order to move to the next.

The simplest way for us to reopen and move forward is to wear your mask in public! This has proven to reduce the spread of the droplets emitted by coughing and sneezing and aerosol droplets from breathing and talking. Agreed, masks are not an absolute, even the N95 mask is not 100% effective.

It is my hypothesis that this is also our vehicle to end this virus, despite the president’s wishful thinking, having a vaccine by year’s end would be a miracle. I believe we will get to herd immunity before we have an effective vaccine. We get to herd immunity when a significant percentage of us have the antibodies to fight off the virus, so that it can’t take hold and infect us. But how do we get these antibodies? By wearing a mask and receiving only very small doses that allows our body’s immune system a chance to fight back.

Advice to avoid increasing risk

Increasing activity according to Safe Start Washington is underway. As a registered nurse of 37 years and now the Democratic candidate for the 16th Legislative District, Position 1, I know that, in order to minimize the risk of infection, it is crucial to follow best practices recommended by public health authorities. Guidelines can be found at https://coronovirus.wa.gov/what-you-need-know/safe-start.

There are practical points to consider that will improve our progress to health and economic recovery.

I recently heard of a nonscientific way to gauge how much virus is present. How loud is the room? If a room is filled with people talking loudly, there is a good chance of increased virus/risk.

An indoor space with poor ventilation, low ceilings and sealed windows creates a higher risk. Coronavirus can hang around longer.

Does the space allow for personal radius of 6 feet for social distancing? Adhering to mitigation techniques (floor markings) is important.

Masks contain what is coming from you. Remember, you can be infected with the virus, not know it, and still spread it to others.

Be mindful of those who are at greater risk, they are less able to fight off the virus.

Finally, wash your hands often.

Mattis got it right

Bravo, General Mattis!

A modern parody of old protest song

A Modern Parody (sung to the tune of “Where Have All The Flowers Gone,” with apologies to Pete Seeger):

“Where have all the Conservatives gone, long time passing? /

Where have all the Conservatives gone, long time ago? /

Where have all the Conservatives gone? They’ve gone to Corrumpicans, every one. /

When will they ever learn? /

Oh, when will they ever learn?”

Wisconsin leads

Aren’t we fortunate? Amid the COVID-19 elimination of social security entitlements, one of our states has stepped forward to be a lab rat. Wisconsin’s state Supreme Court has declared that their governor’s orders to impede the spread of the pandemic are not legal.

Wisconsin is open for business. Thank you Wisconsin for volunteering. We will watch and learn. Remember, they are working on a COVID-19 vaccine — but there is no vaccine for stupid.

The following letters are regarding the Defend the Tri. The volunteer group formed to protect businesses from looting recently disbanded.

Defend the Tri deeply concerning

I am deeply concerned about "Defend the Tri" and Kennewick Police Department's decision to sanction the activities of this group, even posing for photos with them. But it fair to say that I may not have enough information. So I would like to ask a couple of questions. 1) What are the specific rules of engagement between a kid breaking a window of a local business, and a "Defend the Tri" member with an AR-15? and, 2) What is KPD's plan when even 10% of "Defend the Tri" members get into a skirmish in the streets with members of the community, law-abiding or not? Does KPD have the manpower to stop 500+ people with automatic weapons?

I appreciate the difficulty of this moment for law enforcement and for all people demonstrating their grief and raising their voices in protest. May we all remember that we are in this together. "United we stand, divided we fall."

Defend the Tri is embarrassing

Now we have "Defend The Tri.” No thanks! The Tri Cities, a wonderful place to live, has spent years building its "brand" of a fun, family oriented area with lots for everyone, and now we have armed citizen vigilantes with the permission of the police and a huge picture on the front page of the newspaper armed to the hilt walking like "It's just another day in paradise" and with our guns we will defend it.

Shame, shame, shame! I am so embarrassed and disgusted with this display of force meant to frighten!! I hope the first person shot by someone in this group is not one of your close friends or family.

She doesn’t want civilian patrols

Thank you for your June 4 editorial, “Changes needed after Floyd death — not Tri-City gun patrols. I appreciate that you acknowledged, “Civilians with guns and bats staked out in parking lots is not comforting.” To me, it is threatening, and I do not want their “protection."

Who are these people? Is their intent lawful? Who regulates them? Who is their leader? Who hired them?

I trust the Tri-Cities police to protect me against lawbreakers. That is their mission; they have standards, regulations, training. If they exceed regulations, I have redress.

These vigilantes have no safeguards. They are like the unmarked paramilitary in our nation’s capital; no one knows where they came from or who they answer to. We do not need secret police.

Cities encourage their police not to carry batons and weapons that create or escalate violence. Violence is a real possibility with unchecked, untrained well-armed "protectors."

Armed paramilitaries are not the answer to changes needed. The answer is respectful communication and acknowledgment of one another as equal souls. Only then can we begin to unravel the systemic racism underlying the problem.

This group’s right to bear arms does not supersede my right to happiness. They threaten, not protect, me.

This story was originally published June 16, 2020 at 12:01 AM with the headline "Letters: COVID-19, face masks, Defend the Tri and more | June 16."