The Cook County Chamber urges residents of and visitors to Cook County to take seriously the statewide mask requirement Gov. Tim Walz announced Wednesday.
“This is essential to protect our workers and our businesses,” said Chamber Executive Director Jim Boyd. “By reducing the incidence of virus transmission, masks help improve the odds that our most vulnerable businesses will be able to remain open and survive the horrible disruption of this pandemic. Even one positive test in a business can have disastrous consequences.
“However resentful we may be about this dent in our personal freedom,” Boyd said, “most of us surely can agree that it is worth the sacrifice to ensure workers in our businesses remain on the job so they can feed and clothe their kids, pay the rent and keep gas in the car. That is especially true with the enhanced federal unemployment compensation scheduled to end in a few days, pushing many off a frightening financial cliff. Unless there are jobs coming online from an increasingly open economy, many American families are going to be in bad financial shape. And wearing masks is an important key to keeping our economy out of lockdown and providing the jobs these workers need.“
Another reason the governor’s mandate makes sense, Boyd said, is that it creates uniformity. “When mask requirements vary from town to town and business to business – encouraged but not required in some places, required in others and not mentioned at all in still others, — then customers frequently are confused, frustrated and angry,” he said. “When the requirement is uniform in practice and in messaging, everything works better for everyone.
“No one signed up for the hardships this pandemic has imposed on us all,” Boyd said. “But by wearing masks we can help ensure that our local hardware store, restaurant and grocery have the best possible chance of surviving to provide us many additional years of service and employment.”
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