How the Pandemic is changing me

             I had a low threshold for tolerating crazy people before the Pandemic. But now their absurd behavior is endangering my elderly parents, and well, I’ve had enough of it. 

            When someone ignores the evidence and conducts themselves as if COVID-19 doesn’t exist, proudly unmasked and purposefully not socially distancing–they choose the bullet that might ultimately take their life.

            But how many people do they infect, and possibly kill, along the way?

            The virus that causes COVID-19 spreads mainly from person to person, through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks.  These droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people who are nearby. Hence a mask on the person that sneezes will limit the spread of those droplets. And the six feet of distance restricts the droplets from physically reaching another person. (Handwashing is also key to limiting the entrance of droplets from surfaces into the respiratory tract.)

            I have heard from unmasked and grossly misinformed people, “I am not sick,” or “I do not have a fever, I get checked every day,” or most frequently, “I cannot breathe in a mask.” Here’s my rebuttal:

1)    Asymptomatic spread is not only possible but routine. You can feel fine at the beginning of the infection and actively be spreading the virus.

2)    You can be afebrile, completely without fever or symptoms, and be actively shedding the virus through your respiratory droplets.

3)    A cloth mask is a lot better than an oxygen mask, and it’s a heck of a lot easier than being on a ventilator!

            And this is how the Pandemic has profoundly changed me: I feel sorry for the health care hero who risks not only their life, but the lives of their loved ones, to treat a known reckless person– and no longer for that person. I feel sorry for the masked waiter who brought them food, for the co-workers who could not avoid them, and for the clerk who scanned their groceries.

          If I sound angry, I am. And you should be too. This disease will be contained when people follow the science and stop being selfish and reckless. People. Follow the science. Don’t choose this bullet and don’t take along others as you go down.