Dear Editor:

We’re being sold a false choice of only two doors out of this pandemic morass: (1) full stay-at-home and economic shut-down with thousands of lives saved and the economy in a coma; or (2) Full economic re-opening without any precautions or actions to protect the population, and even more hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths.

There is a third door that is not being offered because considering and implementing it reveals the lack of testing, which is the greatest failure and political cover-up of our age. This option uses testing/tracing, quarantine the sick and exposed, and masks for the general public. This, the scientifically sensible solution, is wisely what Governor Mills seeks for Maine.

Experience tells us that at even one party, one tavern, or one funeral where one virus carrier exposes a group of others, can cause a full “outbreak.” It just happened exactly that way in South Korea. Testing/tracing and quarantine are proven techniques.

Here in Boothbay and in Maine, our luck in this crisis will change for the worse when the summer residents and tourists come. What I see as I drive around town are many, many folks not wearing masks, even in stores. This is both foolish and dangerous toward others. We need to wear a mask in public and recognize that anyone without one is a very real danger to you and everyone else.

Dwight Swisher

Boothbay