Ross: What to do about anti-mask resistance

What should we do about this growing anti-mask resistance movement?

This virus is really happy that America has reopened.

We’re seeing infections ballooning — one study estimates as many as 20 million infected people in the U.S. That’s about 1 in every 17 Americans.

And masks are all we have now.

Cloth masks we’re supposed to use are basically dust masks, intended to stop outgoing viruses, not incoming; everybody has to wear one for the policy to work. But if you live in a place full of defiant mouth-breathing face-nudists, what do you do?

Ideally, you would buy masks designed to stop incoming viruses, right? Like those 3M Aura Particulate Respirators, which filter everything. You can’t even smell what’s for dinner. A box of 10 sells for $26!

Or it would, if it was in stock – which it’s not, and hasn’t been for months. Could that be why we’re losing this fight?

Four months into this pandemic most of us ordinary people still can’t get a surgical-grade mask to protect ourselves at close range. No, we have to go into battle with mouth undies.

If we had the real thing, it wouldn’t matter if we found ourselves in a crowded store full of face-nudists — we could just blush, and look the other way.

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