Unnecessary Risks

 

I was having a discussion, the other day, about what the proper response is to someone who’s strolling around in the same space you’re in, all confident and proud of themselves for not wearing a mask; and should that response be any different if the confident proud jerk is a relative? Or a dear, dear friend?

We were trying to figure out why people we know to be reasonably intelligent, capable of reading, of following not-too-difficult explanations, who are generally concerned about the health and well-being of their family and friends, who are otherwise generous, kind, thoughtful individuals, why would they make the bizarre decision to ignore all the advice from the experts, and wander around in public spaces not wearing a mask, spreading their respiratory droplets everywhere and potentially infecting dozens or more of total strangers and their own friends and relatives, and happily sucking into their lungs the respiratory droplets of everyone else who is, or has been, in their general vicinity not wearing a mask. A mask isn’t harmful; the decision doesn’t make sense on any level; and it’s an inherently selfish, self-centered act, as well as a self-destructive act, and an aggressive act towards the rest of us. So – why?

We decided it’s not something we can understand. It’s as if some people we know have become insane. Dangerously insane.

If you ask them, they mutter – or shout – some nonsense about rights. And sometimes they add scarier nonsense about plots, and lies, and politics and - yes, I’ve even heard aliens – that have nothing to do with the health crisis we’re all facing. And beliefs – apparently they don’t believe in this particular invisible thing, even though they believe in other invisible things – like cold germs, and dust mites, and vitamins, and deities, and their own essential correctness.

So, briefly, here’s what I have to say about “rights,” as in “no one has the right to tell me I have to wear a mask.” You who are rights people would be more believable if you walked around naked, too. The law-makers have taken away your right to be nekkid in public, for no better reason than that they think it’s immoral and gross, and you don’t seem to care about that – so why do you think that legal requirement to wear something is ok, but think that wearing a mask, for public health reasons, is a requirement no one should force on you? How about the “right” to drive your car on the wrong side of the road, which has been taken away from you for public health reasons? How about your “right” to defecate in public, which has been taken away from you for public health reasons?  There is no difference except that currently, most lawmakers are hoping you’ll do the right thing without them having to make a law about wearing masks for public health reasons.

Those of you who are convinced that masks are destroying your health or are part of a secret plot to  - I don’t know what, something totally crazy – or are alien-ordered commands, or whatever other wacky thing you’ve bought into: I don’t even want to talk to you people, you’re insane. Go someplace private and live free and die, probably horribly and slowly, drowning in your own mucus. You’re delusional, paranoid and mentally ill, and what more is there to say except that you’re putting the rest of us in danger with your delusions and while I hope you’re mostly functional in your daily lives, if these are the reasons you aren’t wearing masks in public places, you should be removed from public places for our safety and yours.

Mask scoffers are a public danger. Just because we, as a society, still haven’t yet found the ethical and moral will to legislate safety measures doesn’t make the scoffers less dangerous. Just because we have a President who has shit for brains doesn’t make him or them less dangerous. The danger is not something that is true or false depending on your opinion, or your political bent, or how you feel about it today. It’s a fact. Say it out loud: Mask scoffers are a public health danger.

So what do those of us who are still clear-headed do when confronted with people who are doing something very dangerous to us, our friends, our loved ones, to perfectly innocent strangers? Do we not say anything because we don’t want to offend the dangerous people, or be rude to strangers?

I think we have to say something. It’s not like what they’re doing could possibly be dangerous later, maybe. What they’re doing is DANGEROUS RIGHT NOW. They don’t know if they’re carrying or spreading the virus; we don’t know if they are. They don’t know if we’ll get just a little sick if we catch it from them, or a lot. They don’t know if we’ll make other people very sick if we catch it from them. They don’t know. We don’t know. THEY DON’T KNOW.

If someone was in a grocery store playing with fire, but they hadn’t set anything on fire yet, would you just walk by? If someone were in the post office, spraying a toxic chemical into the air, but no one had vomited or passed out or died yet, would you just go about your business and hope for the best? How about if there were 10 people doing that dangerous thing? How about 50? And they assured you they weren’t actually going to set anything on fire or get the toxic chemical in someone’s lungs?

The more people going into public places maskless, the more dangerous it becomes. The danger in a small enclosed space can be quite high with only one or two maskless people in it. In a large enclosed space, the danger gets higher and higher the number of dangerous people are in it. For people who work in those spaces, the risk becomes very, very high, because they’ll be in those spaces breathing the virus those unmasked social pariahs spewed into the enclosed atmosphere for hours and hours.

We have to speak. We have to let those people know that what they’re doing isn’t OK with us, that they’re the non-normal, that they’re in the wrong. They need to hear that we don’t want to take the risk they’re forcing on us. If we don’t speak, it just amplifies and justifies what they’re doing, in their minds. We need to shame them. We need to point out that they’re being selfish, and self-centered, and dangerous. That what they’re doing is our business, because they’re putting us, and our relatives, and our friends, and all the strangers who will pass through the space where they’ve spewed their droplets at potentially serious risk of catching a very serious illness for hours to come.

Covid is very contagious. We know now that more people catch it from respiratory droplets than from hard surfaces, and we know now that the droplets travel further than we thought, and if the conditions are right, can stay airborne much longer than we thought. We know now that it can cause health issues that affect all our organs, which can stay with us for years or a lifetime, even if we don’t get the killing version of the disease.  And we know now that what we don’t know or understand yet about this virus is big.

So speak up. Tell those selfish, self-centered social pariahs to put on a mask. Tell them to grow a conscience. Tell them that the aggressive act they’re committing – not wearing a mask – IS your business. Glare at them. Snarl. Make the evil-eye sign at them. Don’t just walk past them. Try not to call them dick-heads, even though they are.  Repeat shame, shame, shame at them, through your mask.

And do we treat our relatives who are those people with more care?

This is hard, but I don’t think so. Just because they belong to us doesn’t make them less dangerous.  In lots of ways it makes them more dangerous, because they’re going to expect you to go along with them, because you love them. But if they won’t wear a mask, they don’t love you enough to protect you. 

So speak up. And don’t go to the birthday parties, or the family reunions, or Thanksgiving, or Christmas if your mask-scoffing relatives are going to be there, if the celebration is inside, or people can’t keep a distance. Because you don’t know what virus they’re carrying around with them, spewing it all over their family. When you’re with your family or dear friends, you’re apt to be spending a lot of time – talking, eating, singing, laughing, shouting, maybe even hugging and kissing. More than enough time to inhale enough virus to make you ill.

WE DON’T KNOW  WHAT THEY’RE SPEWING. THEY DON’T KNOW.

And if they cared for you as much as for themselves, they’d wear the mask.

For the blog, 18 July 20. Yes, that's poison ivy.