Editor,

In response to May 30 letter to the editor from Joseph Moreland. He asserts that his rights under the First Amendment supersede anyone elses right to not be exposed to the coronavirus.

He demonstrates his ignorance of the full weight of this pandemic on every American.

OK. You may choose to not follow science and CDC guidelines; perhaps you may be one of the lucky ones who avoid being infected, or you may end up with a mild case at worst.

But you are willing to exercise dangerously poor judgment, possibly passing on your infection to other people.

Is this your notion of Christian love and kindness; is this “doing unto others as you would have them do unto you?”

I am a retired registered nurse. I was in practice for 48 years and I have seen people die in abject misery from horrible diseases.

So many people who like to sound off about the United States Constitution and their particular rights do not understand what horrors exist from diseases like Covid-19, and how this contagion must be taken very seriously for the protection of everyone.

If the coronavirus were a virus causing infected victims to have large spontaneous bleeding via every body orifice, as occurred with the Ebola virus, or have uncontrolled diarrhea or incessant vomiting so common in many serious infectious diseases, I doubt Mr. Moreland would feel so cavalier in not paying attention to physicians’ expert advice.

I have also taken care of patients who might have made a full recovery if they had listened to their physicians and family members.

But no, they insisted that they had better answers or chose to follow some quackery like President Trump’s assertion that we should all try drinking bleach.

I still grieve for those patients we lost unnecessarily. They had to be right no matter what the consequences and they died because of their inability to believe the science that might have helped their recovery.

I emphatically reject Mr. Moreland’s offensive remark that following expert advice and following guidelines used in pandemics is a Pavlovian response when we exercise informed judgment and follow proper public health measures, diseases can be contained and following protocols can also promote eradication of the disease entirely.

Mr. Moreland should review how easily smallpox was spread before science and research revealed the source of the infection, ways people became infected, and how they unknowingly spread this disease to others.

I believe disregard for others lies behind every word of nonsense in Mr. Moreland’s letter.

Wear a mask. Follow standard precautions.

Maybe you will meet your heavenly father with a clear conscience, knowing that you didn’t cause anyone to die because you thought only of yourself.

Paulette Becker, RN, MSN

Langley