Missouri needs mask mandate

When I take a life saving shot for my Multiple Sclerosis, I use a piece of medical equipment called a syringe. There are many items of medical equipment: protective gloves, bandages, ventilators, and, yes, face masks. Face masks have been used successfully for over 100 years by our medical heroes. They save lives. There is nothing mysterious about them, and they are politically neutral just like the virus we seek to defeat.

Like my syringes, they only work if used properly. Carrying my syringe around in my purse unused makes it as ineffective as wearing your mask over your Adam's apple, under your nose, or pulling it below your mouth while talking.

All credible scientific and medical evidence points to the dramatic life saving effectiveness of these medical devices with no adverse effects, including breathing difficulties. If you still feel they restrict your breathing, face shields are an alternative.

Some find masks unpleasant to wear. One thinks that months in an ICU on a ventilator cut off from your loved ones would be a far worse experience. Even lying in bed with a milder case of COVID-19 might improve ones attitude toward mask wearing.

Much hostility toward wearing these pieces of medical equipment could have been avoided if at the beginning of this pandemic, our leaders had been more responsible in promoting them rather than politicizing them. It's never too late to admit you were wrong and do the right thing. It's time for mask mandates in Missouri.

MARY MEYER, Jackson