Why People May Die Because President Trump Won’t Wear a Mask

Though he doesn’t have COVID-19, he’s still getting people infected

President Trump has said he is justified in not wearing a mask in public because he is tested for COVID-19 every day and knows he isn’t spreading the disease. But it’s highly probable that he is causing a much greater spread of the virus than if he was directly infecting every person who comes close to him.

Let me illustrate what I mean.

Why I parked where I shouldn’t have

Years ago, when I worked for IBM, I was allowed to go to a nearby college campus during work hours to take some classes. So, I would come to work in the morning, leave for my class, then return to work later in the morning when the class was over.

That particular IBM location had thousands of employees and a 24-hour work schedule. So they set aside a section of the parking lot exclusively for 2nd-shift workers who would be coming in at 1 pm. If you were a 1st-shift worker, you were forbidden to park in the 2nd-shift area. And that rule was faithfully observed — you didn’t see cars parked there during morning hours before 2nd-shift workers arrived.

But I single-handedly changed that!

Because I always left for class in the mornings before any 2nd-shift workers got there, I saw no problem in parking in that area when I first arrived at work. I’d come to work at 8:00 am, leave for class at 9:30 am, and be back before noon. And when I did get back, I always parked in the 1st-shift area. So, I knew that as a practical matter, I would never deprive a 2nd-shift worker of a parking space.

But then something happened that I hadn’t anticipated.

The power of an example

After a few days of my car being parked in the 2nd-shift area, I noticed that other cars started showing up there in the morning as well. That had never happened before I started parking there before going to class. It was apparent that by me parking there, I was unintentionally encouraging others to do the same.

But those employees were not leaving before 2nd-shift people arrived, and so they were using parking slots that were supposed to be reserved for 2nd-shift workers.

In other words, although I wasn’t directly hurting anyone by parking in the 2nd-shift lot in the mornings, I ended up potentially hurting a lot of people because others started following my example. (And once IBM security figured out what was going on and identified me by running my car’s tags, they didn’t seem to sympathize at all with my explanation of why it was OK for me to violate the rule!).

I ended up potentially hurting a lot of people because others started following my example.

What President Trump doesn’t seem to understand

I was just a regular employee with no special authority or influence. In fact, as far as the other employees were concerned, I was totally anonymous. None of them knew who that car parked in the 2nd-shift lot at 8:00 am belonged to. But my example was still a great influence in leading others to do what I did, even though my special reason for doing so did not apply to them.

And that’s what President Trump is missing. He has the biggest megaphone in the country, and many people are powerfully influenced by what he says and does.

Yes, it may be true that he’s getting tested every day and might not be directly infecting anyone. But just as the people who followed my example in parking where they shouldn’t have didn’t share my special circumstance that I thought made it OK for me to do so, many who follow the president’s example don’t share his special circumstance of being assured by daily testing that they are not carriers, perhaps asymptomatic carriers, of COVID-19.

I think it’s undeniable that there are thousands of people in this country who have been encouraged to not wear a mask in public because of President Trump’s example. And it’s a near certainty that, with the COVID-19 virus being as widespread and communicable as it is, some of those people have it and are passing it on to others, whether they realize it or not.

That’s why I think it highly probable that President Trump’s refusal to wear a mask will end up causing many unnecessary deaths.

Leaders must recognize that they cannot act just to please themselves. Their example has a powerful and unavoidable influence on others. I wish President Trump understood that.