Paved with good intentions.

Yes, the New York Post is one of the Big Apple's tabloids (the more right of center one as opposed to the resolutely-left Daily News).

But both tabloids get their basic facts right, and the Post is right about the basics of this one: people of color are exempted from wearing masks in Lincoln (the fragments of my latest irony meter just reached escape velocity) County, Oregon.

From pages 2 and 3 of the relevant health directive:

 The following individuals do not need to comply with this directive:

. . .

People of color who have heightened concerns about racial profiling and harassment due to wearing face coverings in public.

The phrase "strict scrutiny" leaps to mind.

To be fair, let's stipulate that it is still a debated question how effective non-respirator masks can be in protecting/stopping/slowing the spread of coronavirus. And it is correct, as the directive points out, that social distancing is still more important and that even an effective mask is no substitute for that. But, on balance, it appears that masking is a helpful supplemental measure which should be used. The order certainly states as much.

What cannot be denied is that coronavirus has been especially destructive in the African-American community.  

Van Jones has been ringing the bell for months about how horrible the pandemic has been. Because it has been and still is.

But now, the authorities of Lincoln County, Oregon, noting both a spike in cases and community spread, have determined that asking everyone to engage in the same health-protecting practice might somehow make some people of color feel that they are being singled out for harassment or profiling. Instead, an exemption has been offered to those who feel they might be harassed or profiled for wearing a mask. 

Which, with horrible irony, will make the objector stand out even more from everyone else who is complying. 

And it is sadly-foreseeable that this could cause friction within the communites between those who mask and those who object--because that's how human nature works.

And the reality is, Lincoln County is an overwhelmingly white, hardcore Democratic county on the Pacific Coast, with 0.4% of the population identifying as African-American, 1.1% as Asian, 3.5% as American Indian and 7.9% as Hispanic.

Does Lincoln County have a history of racially-harassing and profiling its minority populations? Quite possibly so--reliably Democratic local governments have some grim contemporary histories with respect to minority populations. Even when those populations themselves reliably vote Democratic.

But if so, such a history is not cited as a basis for the exemption. 

And, honestly, given the dire toll racked up by this scourge, the exemption offers a vector for infection and transmission.

The virus will not be moved by paternalistic good intentions toward vulnerable populations.