Letter: Weak policy has serious consequences

I saw the replies to your [previous article about the Aurora City Schools response to Covid].

Aurora isn’t alone, my children attend St. Joseph School in Randolph, and there was a Covid outbreak in the preschool as of last Thursday [Nov. 18]. Both our kids have it, with minor symptoms: one preschool and the other in kindergarten. There was no larger notification that I’m aware of, and likely the entire school was completely exposed with no action taken that I can tell.

No one anywhere is willing to use their authority to enforce the most basic of measures against Covid. Specifically masks. My kids wear masks with me all the time for hours in public without issue.

Yet they are frequently picked up from school without their masks. And now they have Covid. Not a coincidence really. And the Youngstown Diocese, the school, everyone, puts out the most milquetoast policies to avoid offending anyone who is antivax or antimask.

It will never end, and the United States and its citizens are abject failures at collective action.

My concern is for everyone who is restricted or in constant danger because of lack of mask enforcement culture. I think in many discussions the debate devolves into personal anecdotes when it is a collective issue. Yes, 99.xxxx% of us will be fine, but that extra percent or so will be dead or crippled in some way. Both are great costs to society in various ways.

For even more context specific to the Catholic Church, this is the latest policy update I have — the policy emphasizes a mask mandate and again, like everything else, policy is nothing without enforcement!

And finally, I’m not singling anyone out here in particular. It’s a systemic problem in apparently every system.

Marty Simmons