Elected leaders should follow the science on mask-wearing

Recent bursts of sunshine, nearly cloudless skies and summer-like temperatures have got us all outside, recovering not only from the long New Hampshire winter but also from the isolation of COVID-19. It also has us wondering when we might be able to give up the masks weve worn for the past year. Local elected officials are holding public hearings, soliciting input from citizens on mask mandates. Its a controversial issue, with strong feelings on both sides.

Now is the time for strong leadership.

As elected officials, I believe we have to follow the science. This will help us with our fear. There are objective facts out there, and it is our duty to pursue them. Monica Gandhi, professor of medicine and director of AIDS research at the University of California at San Francisco, who was a strong proponent of masking, is now strongly suggesting that we take them off.

In a recent PBS interview, she draws from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as such publications as JAMA, to update us on the research. What might appear as a sudden reversal of opinion regarding mask-wearing, she explains, is not.

Study after study has shown the effectiveness of the vaccines. They are even more effective than originally thought. The vaccines, she further explains, also block transmission.

Additionally, she worries about decreasing the strength of our immune systems through continued mask-wearing. Humans simply need exposure to some pathogens in order to remain strong. (Remember our worries, eons ago, about overuse of antibacterial cleanser on our hands that it might lessen our immunity? That was a solid worry, it turns out.)

Finally and Im drawing directly from Dr. Gandhi here we should remember to be grateful. We live in the richest country in the world: The vaccines were developed in record time, and they have been dispensed with record speed. For those of us who have traveled in developing countries, we can be grateful for the resources that we have at our disposal.

I hope that this means we can be happy, and hopeful.

WENDY PIPER

Enfield

The writer is chair of the Grafton County Commissioners.

Forum contributor Margaret D. Hurley describes the cruelty to animals and the damage to our health and the health of the planet by the consumption of meat and dairy (Stop normalizing animal cruelty, May 25). She seems to be despairing of the Valley News ignoring this kind of news. But I see the printing of her letter as a sign of validation of the subject.

I believe many of us are aware of the cruelty of factory-farmed livestock. Those methods torture and exploit animals and yet, unfortunately, continue to flourish. Maybe this is due to conditioning, habit and the advertising and marketing practices of the meat and dairy industries.

Just eliminating the consumption of factory-farmed animals may not satisfy those opposed to it, but it would be a step in the right direction of living a more compassionate and healthy lifestyle.

As to our own health, studies such as Colin Campbells The China Study point to a whole-food, plant-based diet as a healthy food choice. Yet we seem to be on our own as far as learning how to go about this. I guess many health care practitioners may not feel adequately trained to include that in their wellness programs. Luckily, there are helpful resources, such as foodrevolution.org, run by John and Ocean Robbins.

To the list of documentaries on the subject of plant-based diet, a good one to add is The Game Changers. This may especially appeal to sports-oriented folks. It is gripping and convincing and may begin the process of change, namely starting with compassion for our own bodies.

Self-compassion may be a good entrance point to this ever-evolving journey of a step-by step move toward a more sustainable and compassionate future. When we learn to take care of ourselves we can really thrive and be as healthy as possible.

It may automatically lead to compassion for animals, our co-inhabitants, and to the healing of our beautiful but severely overtaxed natural world.

BINEKE PEL OORT

Wilder

My maternal grandfathers birth surname was Yerushalimsky, a Europeanized version of Yerushalmi, which means of or from Jerusalem. That itself means nothing, of course, but my grandfather was a kohen, or hereditary member of the priestly caste, and careful attribution of that lineage is taken quite seriously in Judaism. Performance of every ritual for significant life events depends on it. And my father was a hereditary member of the priestly assistants class, ditto and likewise. (Imagine the shonda when I became a Muslim and remained so for a considerable number of years!)

U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaibs maiden name was Harbi, which means of or from the tribe of Harb, originating in the southern part of the Arabian peninsula. (Of course, if you boil us down, Im just a Brooklynite and shes a Detroiter.

But funny thing: A handful of my cousins were born in Mandatory Palestine, and therefore were legally of Palestinian citizenship, according to the governing British law of the time, before they acquired Israeli citizenship.

Why do ethnic groups now self-identified as Palestinian speak the non-indigenous language of Arabic? If thats your mother tongue and you call yourself a Palestinian, your people come originally from colonizers or the colonized. And invaders from practically time immemorial kept carrying my ancestral people away in chains, if they managed to survive massacres. Im glad a maternal great-aunt, and a maternal great-uncle, and my various cousins, survived all the massacres in 1929.

Both Jews and Arabs, and their governing authorities, have been perpetrating atrocities and cruelties upon each other for a very long time.

Want to stop them? Shut the money spigots pouring into the hands of fundamentalist crazies on both sides. They mirror each other in every single way. They have every bad thing in common. I promise you, as one whos been a bat mitzvah girl and an Eid celebrant, Ive got a heck of a mishigas meter.

Want the possibility of peace over there? Neuter the evil twins and let everyone else breathe.

SARAH CRYSL AKHTAR

Lebanon

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Forum, May 28: Elected leaders should follow the science on mask-wearing - Valley News