Readers Write: Don’t blame Biden for COVID spread

The Island Now

This is in response to the letter submitted by Frank Smith, who wonders why COVID keeps spreading. The answer is extraordinarily simple and comes down to three words: masks, social distancing.
The photo I have attached is a file photo taken off Yahoo! news. It shows a group of people waiting in line to be tested somewhere in Philadelphia. Not one of them is social distancing.
In June 2020, at what was arguably the beginning of the end of the 1st wave of COVID, I was in line at the cashier in a gas station just outside the Bronx piece of the Bronx/Westchester border. A woman in line behind me was trying to get inside my body like Patrick Swayze going inside Whoopi Goldberg in the movie “Ghost.” Likewise when I was standing in line in Western Beef in the Bronx about two months ago, likewise when I attempted to get tested for COVID on 12/23/2021.
Larry Penner, a frequent contributor to this publication (and every other publication in the country), was interviewed by Newsday circa May, 2021. He also has a letter posted on these pages on 5/31/2021, advocating to phase in maskless rides on the LIRR. My letter in rebuttal appears on these pages on 6/1/2021. I wear glasses. I despise wearing a mask. It fogs up my glasses in winter. I also wear it everywhere except my car and my apartment. I have also been exposed to COVID three times in less than a year. In each instance I tested negative; I credit my attempts at social distancing and constant mask wearing for it.
Unless and until people wake up and smell the coffee and learn to social distance and wear masks COVID will continue to be the gift that keeps on giving.
As for President Biden, it is arguable if he has or has not been effective in this crisis. But President Biden is not responsible for the behavior of the people in this country. President Biden cannot make everyone in this country social distance. He cannot make everyone in this country wear a mask. He cannot make people such as Larry Penner, a former federal transportation bureaucrat, take it upon themselves to decide when people should or should not wear masks.
I am not in favor of wearing masks forever. They are uncomfortable and their cost is mounting up. I am until this nightmare is eradicated.

Nat Weiner
Bronx

TAGGED: Nat Weiner
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