The Unmasking of America
As I sit here on a Friday morning, waiting to launch forth in my car dragging my motorcycle trailer to Utah to gather with twenty or so pals to hang out at a lovely western lodge as we ride the canyons, I am wondering how the CDC revelation that we vaccinated people of the world no longer must wear masks outside and inside (so long as we are not in a crowded space). The pundit analysis on MSNBC is running wild trying to define the exact parameters that are recommended where masking is still preferred. The first message is quite clear, everyone should get vaccinated. The second message is that there is still a nasty virus running around in the world (some places worse than others) that we should probably be wary about and shield ourselves from with both vaccine and mask as needed. It is only the tertiary message that we no longer have to take the added precaution that we don’t need to suffer trying to breathe and talk through a mask at all times. In fact, the message is only somewhat scientific and medical and seems mostly to be psychosocial. We no longer must feel guilty about not wearing a mask and thereby are no longer endangering the health and lives of our nearby fellow man. That’s big.
But here’s the thing, the past year has laid bare the pale underbelly of our society. There are empathetic people and there are generally uncaring people. The uncaring tend to be more about personal freedom and the survival-of-the-fittest mentality that implies that nature will prevail and that grace has no place in daily life. That probably isn’t what those people feel one-on-one when presented with real up-close-and-personal circumstances (some majority percentage I feel would still do the right thing), but it is the persona they and, most often, their politics demands of them to put on their face. I simply don’t know why that must be, but it seems overwhelmingly true these days. If you liked the Donald Trump manner of governing and what he stood for, you feel the need to stand strong for the most part on several key issues. You must be pro Second Amendment and claim that the government has the obligation to allow and endorse all forms of gun ownership. You must be pro-life and stand strong on the importance of religious foundation in the definition of human obligations, regardless of the cost to the women bearing the children. But, at the same time, you must also believe that life is societies’ to claim when needed through capital punishment, including via firing squad in certain states that are having trouble sourcing or properly using lethal injection alternatives. And, last, but not least, of late, you must believe that COVID is nature’s way of thinning the herd for the benefit of the species…since that implies that those naturally stronger souls and their loved ones will logically survive and be left with more resources for their needs. This is what I, altogether, characterize as uncaring.
This is a normal getaway day for most people since it is a Friday, but this route from Southern California to Las Vegas is especially so since Las Vegas has just within the last week come out of full lockdown. There are few places that people miss going to than Disney World, Disneyland and yes, the adult version of sheer fun, Las Vegas. People come to Orlando and Anaheim from many directions, but the vast majority of Las Vegas traffic is on Rt. 15 through the San Bernardino Pass and out across the Mojave Desert past Barstow, Baker, Primm and Zzyzx Rd. And there we were in the midst of that pilgrimage today to the gods of chance and fun. We only stopped once in Barstow and the gas station and burger joint were quite mask-appropriate despite the recent pronouncement that vaccinated people no longer need to use masks so avidly. We found people more, rather than less, careful and mask-polite. When we arrived in Lake Las Vegas at the Westin, the situation was even more stark. The hotel was getting slammed with more than full occupancy due to a young girls’ dance competition. This was more like an Orlando activity than a Las Vegas activity, but Nevada and Arizona are apparently some of the only places that allow that sort of gathering already, so here they are. The hotel lobby and reception was crowded, the restaurant was crowded, but ALL of the service people, bellmen, front desk, wait staff and chambermaids were all dutifully following masking protocol, not in a perfunctory manner, but in a serious and respectful manner.
The surprising thing we encountered was that we arrived at about 5pm, one hour after normal check-in time and the rooms were not ready. After much toing and froing, we spent two hours at dinner and more than three hours hanging around the lobby, complaining….along with a raft of other people in the same predicament. It was a very unpleasant situation and despite having our dinner paid for and our rooms comped, we were not happy campers. Through the torturous process of complaining and demanding answers, we learned from the front desk that this situation was due to their inability to lure chambermaids back to work since they supposedly preferred to stay on unemployment. That pay in Nevada is $479/week. Add to that the $300/week Federal Stimulus pay and you get $779/week. That compares, according to our chambermaid, to $12/hour paid by Westin Lake Las Vegas to chambermaids. By my math that means they only get $480/week, or assume 10 added hours of overtime, $660/week for a grueling 50-hour week. While the chambermaid said that people were staying at home to collect the better unemployment pay (the $300 Federal Stimulus pay being the tipping point), the Strip hotels pay chambermaids $20/hr and are having no problems. The same 50-hour week would net them $1,100/week.
Amazon has come to realize that to attract employees, they must pay a $1,000 sign-on bonus plus $17/hour plus benefits. I think its fair to say that Amazon represents the new baseline for living wage. At that level and a 40-hour week, a person working there will earn $36k their first year. Anything less is almost impossible to live on, much less support a family trying to seize the American Dream.
I am very impressed by what we have seen today of the working population of America. They are taking COVID seriously and treating their fellow Americans with the sort of respect and caring that we all want and deserve. On the other hand, there is corporate America, trying its best to create profits and value on the back of that labor, unwilling to serve its clients or its employees in a manner that delivers that same degree of respect and caring. The market speaks loudly and remembers. Customers leave for better service. Employees migrate for fairer conditions. Companies that don’t pay close attention and care for these critical constituents, destroy values d fall by the wayside. That phenomenon may lead to the ultimate unmasking of America.
The hotels, etc probably mandate masks for all employees based mainly on avoiding regulatory harassment and liability costs than any concern for health and safety. When a business declares all who enter should be in masks I am happy to comply- a variation of no shoes no shirt no service, a matter of the right of the business owner. As a physician who actually reads the science I can say that many of the restrictions on public and private behavior were and are not substantiated or necessary. Following the case loads demonstrated that as well. Far greater damage was done to the economy and to the populations health by the unwarranted restrictions than by the virus. Since it is now endemic in the country we can look forward to the government never allowing us to return to “normal” as is the case with post 9/11 restrictions.