A TON of reasons to follow masking, physical distancing, & safety protocols but one that's often overlooked (imo) is that it helps prevent shaming the sick if an outbreak occurs.

As w/ most things, there are multiple levels to Covid safety: preventing spread, honoring govt guidelines, seeking common good over personal preference, etc.

But there's also a Q of how to maintain morale & unity of group in face of external threat.

One of surest ways to destroy the unity of your org is giving in to human temptation to find someone to blame when bad things happen. Find the spreader & pin everything on him or her.

When safety protocols are left to personal choice, sickness becomes associated w/ personal choice, increasing shame associated w/ it. In this scenario, contact tracing becomes an exercise in assigning guilt rather than simply stopping spread.

ISTM that personal guilt & shame associated w/ being a spreader will increase when individuals are given choice about safety protocols. Enforcing uniform expectations may actually protect individuals from community turning on them if/when they contract virus.

Obviously, there's potential for community policies to become legalistic & be used to shame individuals into compliance. I get that. But what I'm suggesting is stakes are much lower in this situation.

If you're a leader of an org like a church or school, please consider that leaving safety protocols up to individual choice as a way to maintain unity in this moment may actually be a greater risk to long-term unity.

This sends message that sickness is an individual or private matter, increasing the likelihood of blame, anger, & shame when someone eventually gets sick & introduces it into the community.

W/ uniform protocols, however, fighting viral spread is positioned as a group effort. Insofar as everyone is doing best to follow them & people *still* get sick, the virus becomes the enemy rather than fellow community members.

(PS- If this doesn't make sense to you, see: Lice outbreaks & protocols in schools & camps.