Editorial: The commonwealth's appeal to serious common sense on coronavirus safety

Is Pennsylvania doing what it should have been doing all along with the coronavirus pandemic?

Secretary of Health Rachel Levine announced Tuesday “targeted efforts” to address rising covid-19 numbers.

The measures include beefing up the mask mandate she issued in April. It will demand people be masked inside anytime they are with people who aren’t members of their own household — even if the dinner table they gather around is at Grandma’s house and not the corner pizza place.

Also required are negative covid tests within 72 hours of traveling to or returning to Pennsylvania. Without that test, Levine said a 14-day quarantine is necessary.

It is unsurprising the state is trying to step up its response. Thanksgiving is just next week, when families that have been at arms length during the coronavirus pandemic all year are pining to come together for a little turkey and fellowship. There is a very real possibility of disease spread from that.

The idea of an emphasis on masks and other personal behavior modifications is in keeping with what a SpotlightPA story noted — namely that lockdowns aren’t necessarily the answer.

“I think there’s this false idea that it’s either lockdown or nothing, lockdown or normal life,” said Dr. Steve Albert, chair of the department of behavioral and community health sciences at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

Pennsylvania struggled with the earlier restrictions, but it seems Gov. Tom Wolf and his administration have learned about the response the same way doctors are learning about the disease. For example, Levine stressed the red- yellow-green system of lockdown levels won’t be used again.

Most people are capable of understanding personal responsibility and an obligation to their role in keeping other people safe. That’s how cars are able to drive 70 mph controlled only by painted lines and a few signs.

Monitoring who sits around the Thanksgiving table is going to be difficult, if not impossible, in a state of 12.8 million people. What is necessary is getting everyone to police their own actions and know what’s best for everyone is to stay in the right lane.

So maybe Levine’s latest move does that. But only if the people take up the challenge.