To the editor: Re-open business with safety rules
The Chester Telegraph | Apr 15, 2020 | Comments 2
Stay Home Stay Safe Until May 15? The governor is going to bankrupt us and the state. The collateral damage and unintended consequences will be vast. Hospital visits are down by 50 percent already.
People without Covid-19 are getting sicker. People will die from causes other than Covid-19. They won’t go to the hospital for stroke or heart issues; they won’t go for hypertension or diabetes. Depression is going to skyrocket. Hunger is going to get out of hand.
Unless the unintended consequences are modeled alongside with Covid-19, we are fooling ourselves as to whether we are doing bad or good.
It is time to push back and allow the state of Vermont to re-open for those who can maintain social distancing. Outside construction, lawn care, marinas and landscapers should be allowed as long as social distancing can be maintained. Offices, factories and stores should be allowed to open if their employees and patrons wear masks when closer than 10 feet from others and wipe surfaces several times a day. Farmers markets should be allowed with social distancing and face masks enforced.
The rule should be that everyone wears a mask in public or within 10 feet of another person or there is a $50 fine. Social distances have to be maintained or there is a $100 fine. A positive IgG test should allow individuals return to work.
I am 100 percent for protecting people in a way that works and makes sense. This “make everyone crawl under a rock and hide” method is nuts. We have to protect at-risk populations. They need to be isolated. My parents are 90 and living at Wake Robin. That site is locked down, and that is smart. All senior housing and housing for at risk populations needs to be locked down.
The rest of the state needs to open back up, maintain social distance, wear masks, be smart and keep safe.
There has to be a better way than risking people’s health and livelihoods.
There has to be a smarter way.
Douglas Friant
South Londonderry
Filed Under: Businesses • Commentary • Covid 19 Coverage • Letters to the Editor
Whenever the Governor says he is following the science, I wish some reporter would ask him if economics is a science.
We could bring highway crashes to zero by prohibiting driving. We could prevent electrocutions by shutting down the electric power grid. We could stop telephone fraud by shutting down the telephone system.
No doubt, many high risk people should be sheltering in place, and there should be common sense rules for a lot of economic activity. But the economic destruction of going overboard has been massive.
I am with you other than the fining. No time and not enough help to enforce to that degree. Most would wear masks as they are now. The public places I have been into I would say 90 percent are wearing them already