by Kevin Coupe
There is a terrific piece in the Washington Post about how a hair stylist at a Great Clips salon in Springfield, Missouri, was diagnosed as having the Covid-19 coronavirus, "directly exposing 84 customers who had sat just inches from her face for up to 30 minutes each."
The next day, the Post writes, "a second stylist at the same Great Clips tested positive for the coronavirus. She’d worked on 56 clients." Several hundred people could have been exposed.
City health officials steeled themselves for an outbreak. Salons had just been open for two weeks, and they feared they'd have to impose another shutdown.
But they didn't, because there was no new outbreak. Best they can tell, nobody exposed to the two stylists got sick.
One reason: The Great Clips salon was religious about staff and customers having to wear masks in the salon.
Robin Trotman, medical director of Infection Prevention Services at CoxHealth in Springfield, reacts this way: “Which mask worked, the hairdresser’s or the client’s? I think the answer is yes. They both worked.
"The system worked. Universal masking worked. It really doesn’t matter which one.”
Exactly.
Someone explain to me why masking isn't required for everyone out in public, at least until we break the back of this thing. Which we can do if we take it seriously … but won't if we are cavalier about it.
I repeat:
As citizens, we can behave responsibly, and help achieve a lower number. Or, we can go the other way, and the number could be higher. We are not at the service of these numbers. The numbers will be determined, to a great degree, by us.
And that's the Eye-Opener.
