Damn That Donald Trump!

Here's a mask I could get behind.

My husband keeps wondering aloud why the U.S. has more deaths from Covid-19 than any other country, per capita. I think I found out why this week while visiting Bar Harbor, Maine. Although Maine has not had the lion's share of the disease, being at the very bottom of the list of cases and deaths, still there's something to be learned about human nature in this vacation town.

For starters, the wearing of masks, which are available in town via big dispensers on the street corners that say "FREE MASKS," and promoted with signs in every shop and restaurant in town, does not seem to have caught on with the general public. Or else they just don't get the whole thing. Many people pass by you well within 6 feet without a mask on, although they usually are carrying one and either wave it at you or rush to put it on after they have passed by, as if to say, "See, I do have one, I do care." (Just not about me, I guess.)

Meanwhile, out on the wild trails of Acadia National Park, anything goes. About half the hikers are masked, while the other half are bare-faced. (My husband says it's more like two-thirds, one-third, but he's always been a glass-is-half-full type.) By the end of my second day here I had slid into maskless territory, thinking, "Hey, why bother?" As for all the hand-washing and sanitizing that marked the early days of the pandemic, those too have apparently gone by the wayside, at least based on what I have seen in public restrooms. In our hotel room there is a big bottle marked "Room Sanitizer." I used it this morning, spraying all the surfaces, and feel much better about myself.

In conclusion, I guess all the deaths are Donald Trump's fault. Isn't everything?