An Ounce of Prevention.....
Recently, I was unfriended on Facebook. It was the first time someone unfriended me for my views. I might have understood if she was pro-life as I am strongly pro-choice. I might have been able to squeeze an understanding on several other issues i.e. I am LGBTQ friendly and believe in equal rights including marriage. I am very anti-Trump policies. But these are not what tipped the scales. I posted an article on the fact that Amazon employees wanted to know when other people in the warehouse were COVID 19 positive. I believe that if someone who has a disease that I could catch and/or carry back to my family, has tested positive and I have come in direct contact with them, then I should be informed. I don’t need to know who, I just need to be warned not to visit my 87 year old father-in-law.
I was called a sheep. I’m not sure why that stings, but I don’t think I am a sheep. I think I am logical and pragmatic. I am on a fixed income and able to stay at home and meet not only my family’s needs, but also those of my staff. The longer I can keep us and them out of a hospital bed increases the chances that a better effective treatment can be found. It also frees up any hospital bed that might be needed for someone who doesn’t have the luxuries I do.
At the beginning of the COVID 19 pandemic, I had the flu or something, the tests never did come back with a clear answer, but it felt like the flu that turned into bronchitis that stayed for weeks. Just coming out from one respiratory infection, why would I risk a second, knowing how much time and energy the previous one took out of me. Once again I am lucky, I was able to get and take both of the antibiotics given to me. I was able to nebulize myself three times a day and drink endless amounts of spiced hot water to quell the never ending throat tickle.
I believe companies should inform their employees when they have come in contact with a COVID +ve person. That person might have someone immuno-compromised at home, they should be able to try and protect their loved ones.
I believe masks should be worn outside the home, especially inside stores and offices. Store employees come in contact with hundreds of customers and delivery persons. They have to be there at work or lose their job. You wearing a mask is there to help their risk go down. You may have COVID 19 and not realize it, do you really want to risk someone else’s livelihood or even their life if all you need to do is wear a mask for the thirty minutes you are in a store? If you are outside and can keep distance from others, even I agree that a mask may not be necessary, but you don’t know why some people might choose to wear a mask even outside, it might be fear, but it might be because they have someone immuno-compromised at home. It’s not your call to make as to how someone else protects themselves or their loved ones.
People keep saying that COVID 19 is no worse than the flu, but if you read the studies that are starting to come in you see ranges anywhere from 2-20 Xs the death rates (Dr. Fauci says it is 10 times more lethal than the seasonal flu), more important a person is 10 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID 19 than if they had the flu and once there the stay is almost twice as long. (11 days for COVID 19 vs 5.5 days for the flu). So you are getting a larger number of infectious persons being admitted for longer periods with a higher chance of dying. This is putting a strain on supplies and personnel. Then when the supplies are low and personnel become sick there are fewer healthcare providers. And this is when countries are on lockdown trying to keep the transmissions low.
Courtesy of the flu I had prior to lockdown, I have been home since late February. In the month before lockdown I was out of the house 7 times, 2 doctor visits, 2 walks in the garden, 2 dinners in restaurants and 1 meeting. Trust me, as much of a homebody as I am, even I am beginning to get a touch of cabin fever, on average the temperature is 100F and there are no malls or movie halls to go to. It is too hot to walk in the parks and anything inside has been shut down. I am looking forward to the day I can go and have even a semi “normal” day, but until there is a good treatment, I will continue to take precautions in the hope that an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure.
You are to be commended for your concern toward the wellbeing of others, including that of the person whom has taken the evolved and enlightened stance you have come to, with logic and empathy, that she is clearly, in this case, lacking. In that dearth, she is characterizing your high mindedness as a fear of authority and (forgive my French) pissing all over your autonomy out of some ill conceived notion that action in concern for others is yielding one's autonomy. Brava! To you! Brava, Madame! Only life can teach the lessons needed for those who think their knowledge is so special that they cannot communicate it because you are something less than human.
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