[Portion removed.] I for one am happy to put on a required face covering, use hand sanitizer at the front door of a retail shop or mall, get all doctors dentists, sports teams back to work with safety measures, and get back to LIFE AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

Yes, I remember at least social aftermath of polio epidemics. One thing they used to do, that would help a lot now, is teach children good hygiene in school. Hygiene, unlike the way the word is being used today in the popular culture, does not mean how clean you are, or how much you kill every germ in sight, it’s merely what you do to prevent the spread of infection.

When I suggested the local school facilitate and teach hand washing for elementary kids, because I could see it not only wasn’t happening, kids were finding it hard to do and were learning that it wasn’t important, (like being shho’d out of a room that had a sink immediately after class for their short lunch/play time) I was told they should have learned to wash their hands by that age (kindergarten) and presumably have the presence of mind to insist a balking teacher let them leave for lunch earlier so they would have time to run to the restroom.(not)

There was zero concern for hygiene or how to prevent infection even when teachers got sick a lot. Which led to the reactionary teachers who would pile up on the asthmagenic cleaning products and wipes despite what it did to the kids’ health and susceptibility to asthma, which is, again, not the same as good hygiene

Learning good hygiene simply became good sense and wasn’t a big deal. Hopefully something like that will come back in our schools again

[Portion removed.] Sometimes *public health* needs to impact your -rights-. Because, if you are dead, you've lost your life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The fact is, -rights- are always in conflict with each other. That is why, even though we have rights defined in the Constitution including the Bill of Rights, we still need laws and courts to demarcate where one right prevails over another right. You need to understand this point because our system of government depends upon it.

>> I for one am happy to put on a required face covering, use hand sanitizer at the front door of a retail shop or mall, get all doctors dentists, sports teams back to work with safety measures, and get back to LIFE AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

Your -pursuit of happiness- is a real threat to my life. It is a threat to the lives of a large number of parents and grandparents over the age of 50. Hand sanitizer and a bandanna are not going to protect the lives of a lot of older and more vulnerable people.

We have to have a -reality based- discussion which includes the best information we have about the actual threat, in order to have a consensus regarding the balance of risk and various different rights that are in conflict with each other.

I do agree with Parent above about what is being taught to kids about hygiene but I don't blame the schools alone. How many times have snacks been handed out to kids at soccer games, etc. and Pizza parties after Little League games and not one child goes and washes hands before eating with their hands.

Back in the day, eating with your hands was completely frowned on not only as bad manners, but also poor hygiene. Using forks, spoons, etc. was the norm for eating at home, but unfortunately the fast food craze started and no longer was it cool to use any type of implement to eat food. Finger foods were cool, pizza, burgers, fries, KFC, you name it, eaten without implements and without handwashing first. Even in restaurants, chicken is picked up with the hands and gnawed on like an animal, rather than cutting the meat from the bones.

Some cultures always keep a dirty hand and a clean hand for food.

American culture has gone backwards in hygiene. I am not blaming the present pandemic on hygiene alone, but it does bring into question the societal norms around eating habits. Perhaps one good thing may come out of this and we all start eating less with our hands and more with forks, etc.