My mom went shopping the other day. She asked her cashier, a younger gal, if she was worried about getting coronavirus from all the people she encounters at the store.
“No,” this young woman said. “If I get it, I get it.”
The cashier, like Trump, obviously hasn’t expanded her thinking beyond herself yet. It’s not that if you get it, you get it. The real issue is that if you get it, someone else will get it.
Early amidst the pandemic, when I saw student workers coming down my office hallway sanitizing doorknobs, I gave them a thumbs-up and told them they were were saving the world.
On my venture out for provisions yesterday, I watched from six feet away (marked by the helpful red dots on the floor) as my Target cashier sprayed and wiped her counter before she beckoned me forward to handle my purchase. I told her behind her Plexiglass partition to keep up the good work. When she scrubs her workstation, just as her colleagues scrub each shopping cart and basket after each use, she’s not just saving her life; she’s saving the lives of her neighbors.
Those young people appear to be at higher risk of covid-19 than my mom or me: as of yesterday, 87 South Dakotans in the 20–29 age group had tested positive for coronavirus, compared to 70 in my 40–49 set and eleven in Mom’s 70–79 group. I don’t want those young people to get sick, but I also don’t want them making anyone else sick.
Thus, those young people have to do what I remember was the hardest thing for me to do when I was a Rush-Limbaugh-loving twenty-something: think of others and not just myself.
If you get it, someone else will get it. So be smart: scrub up, stand back, don’t get it, and don’t give it.
Most young people have a certain belief that they are bullet proof.Aside from physical conditioning, this belief makes then great candidates for the military. It works fine until the person next to them loses their head or internal organs. Its a quick reality check that makes most realize that they need to work as a team for the survival of all because their life is dependent on teamwork for common good of all concerned.
Duly noted, young and old, we all must be combat grunts in order to work together to beat this attack. If it would’ve been an ambush, that would be one thing, but we have watched this attack coming for a long time while our leaders were lapping up China’s problem and saying nothing to worry about and sending everyone on R&R.
We are all combat grunts Working as a team for the survival of all—gentlemen, thank you. That’s the right way to look at it.
Funyy that a culture that idolizes the military has trouble internalizing and practicing that fundamental military operating principle.
Something else to add, Military medicine and why that needs to be the new program of the land. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/4/10/1936252/-Military-Medicine-is-the-Model?utm_campaign=recent
I was in a garden center today shopping for plants for my garden. Every employee was masked, as was I. In addition, there were plexiglas barriers to protect them. The store wasn’t very busy, but I was shocked by how many people, old people, were bare faced. They get COVID-19 and they might die. Maybe they belong to one of those masquerading-as-Christian churches where the minister is determined to kill off his parishioners.
Debbo–the cynic in me believes these minsters are thinking short term for the collection plates, not understanding long term of when “the goose is dead, no more golden eggs”.
Debbo, if I understand correctly why masks are recommended, the general concensus is that masks only help prevent an infected individual from infecting others. Masks, however, apparently do not assist in preventing someone wearing the mask from being infected.
https://www.factcheck.org/2020/04/covid-19-face-mask-advice-explained/
Wearing masks seems a responsible choice to protect others. Bare faced old folks apparently aren’t increasing the chance they “get COVID 19 and they might die.” But yes, they well could be trying to kill off other parishioners.
I believe that masks also slow down the distribution of one’s own micro spittle as well. Depends on the quality of the mask, of course.
People have heard too often that they are not protected if they wear a mask, namely, that my mask protects only you and not me from you. That’s only half the story. The fact is, when both people wear a mask, my mask protects you from me, and your mask protects me from you. Hence we have a two-way barrier when both people wear a mask: both people are now protected from each other.
To what extent are masks valuable as a symbol, a most prominent physical badge that says, “I recognize my social duty. I’m taking steps to protect you”?
A mask, like any object, is overdetermined: it has a variety of meanings, different meanings to different people, including that of a social symbol as you indicate. My emphasis is on the healthwise, win-win situation that accrues to both parties–if, that is, both consent to wear a mask.