I recently listened to several minutes of the Utah Legislature’s interim session while a Utah Transit Authority employee talked about UTA’s efforts to raise bus and train ridership in Salt Lake County after a decline due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
They listed many ideas to help riders think they will be safe while riding the bus again — plexiglass for the driver, boarding from the back, sanitizing the buses daily, etc. However, there is only one thing UTA needs to do to make people feel safe taking public transportation again — require masks for every rider.
Four months into this pandemic, nothing is more clear than the need for masks. Studies show this virus spreads through particles in the air that are transmitted from people. Several medical studies have shown support for the idea that masks work in stopping the spread of the virus.
The first study of note is the Great Clips study in Springfield, Missouri. Two employees worked while exhibiting symptoms of the virus, potentially exposing 200 to 300 people. The employees were required to wear masks as well as all the customers who entered the store. No new cases were reported.
On the flip side, Oregon’s biggest outbreak of the virus is attributed to gatherings at the Lighthouse Pentecostal Church in Union County, Oregon. According to The Los Angeles Times, “365 people were tested for the virus and 66% tested positive.”
There are many, many more studies that show the same thing. It is time for our elected officials and leaders everywhere to require the use of masks in public. Regarding UTA scrabbling to get bus and train ridership back to pre-pandemic levels, it will take one requirement for me — that is the requirement of masks.
Laura Knowlton, North Salt Lake