Sound Off for April 17, 2020

More masks

I can empathize with the person who saw a Walmart full of people with few wearing masks. Wednesday I went to Lowe’s in Waveland and aside from myself there was one employee and two shoppers wearing masks. Not one checkout clerk with a mask. Until we start adhering to some basic rules the coronavirus will continue to spread.

Kudos

Thank you to the interim Harrison County tax collector and team for effectively implementing a new socially-distanced tag purchase process. Tagged in 30 minutes. Seems there was some collusion with the wonderful weather though.

Overreaction

In response to “Big Problems,” I completely understand your concern about COVID-19. There are people dear to me that have compromised immune systems. Apparently, this virus is much more contagious than originally thought, but the fact remains that we have lived through Asian flu, SARS, H1N1 and Zika which is still around today. Doctors Fauci and Brix are experts in their field, but protracted period of social distancing in unrealistic. As soon as this overreaction subsides, I am going to live my life as I always have, washing my hands and staying away from people that are obviously sick.

Public works

I am horrified that the current administration’s Department of Agriculture has not convened a think tank to address surplus vegetables, milk and eggs being wasted. After FEMA and the various National Guards finish building hospitals to house COVID-19 cases, why not build storage facilities to house produce? Why not employ the Defense Production Act to require industry to save harvests? We really should have a public works program to turn some lemons into lemonade.

Help from big business

Could the power company, water department, lending institutions and landlords waive late fees for the months of March, April and May? Could some of these entities also add the payments due for these months to the end of the year instead of collecting now so that the debtors would have more time to gather monies to pay these bills? I know that power and water companies have waived shut off dates, a concession much appreciated.

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This story was originally published April 16, 2020 at 1:47 PM with the headline "Sound Off for April 17, 2020."