Entry tags:
on health security
I was talking with ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dollsome yesterday about mask-wearing and general Covid anxiety, and I want to expand that conversation because I'm interested in other people's povs.
I see people (mostly my online friends tbh--I have not heard anyone say this in real life, which could just be reflective of the fact that I live in a red state or it could be that I have not signaled that I am open to hearing these things) asking, "Why is everyone acting like the pandemic is over? Why aren't they wearing masks? Why aren't they scared?"
And I think this raises an important distinction between perspectives on this topic, and I want to explore it from my own perspective.
I still wear masks in indoor public places. I put one on when I go to the grocery store, when I went to a play last month, and definitely always when I'm in an airport or plane.
But I really don't do that because I personally feel anxiety about catching Covid. I wear masks because I have seen so many immune-compromised people online essentially begging people to do so. They are still so scared and they feel like no one cares about them. And I want to make sure they live in a safer world and also I want them to know that I care about them. That is why I still wear masks.*
But if I wasn't hearing those voices? I would not be wearing one.
Because I don't feel the anxiety. I know intellectually that the pandemic is ongoing. But it feels over for me. Maybe this is just my own foolishness and immaturity. But I think it's actually because I'm not used to my safety being on the line.
I have had a myriad of tiny-to-medium-sized health concerns in my life (everything from stitches to IBS to clinical depression). I've known physical pain and discomfort and I've sure as hell known mental pain and discomfort. But never once has my life been on the line. When I worry about health concerns, I worry about pain, about it getting worse, etc. But I have never once felt the kind of existential fear that someone whose life is in jeopardy feels. I don't worry about dying.+ Nor have I felt the kind of everyday knowledge that people with chronic pain carry around where every action is freighted with consequences for the future (of the "If I do this today, I will literally not be able to get out of bed tomorrow" variety). I just don't have those experiences.
And I think most people don't. Most of us go through life taking our health more or less for granted. Now, this comes from a place of enormous privilege, I know that. Privilege that could disappear for anyone in seconds and without warning. But while you're operating within that privilege, I think it's really hard to make yourself feel the danger that a subset of the population feels daily.
I don't feel it. But I interact online with people who do feel it, and I care about them, and so I realize that my perspective is skewed. So I choose to wear a mask.
But if I weren't interacting with those people? Or if I was, but they weren't saying these things because they didn't feel they could trust me? I think I would think people who are still wearing masks who aren't immuno-compromised themselves are being alarmist and I would roll my eyes at them.
And I think that's where the majority of people are at. I think that is one of the two big reasons people (at least in the US) aren't wearing masks anymore and are acting like the pandemic is over. (The other is the politicization of the issue, and the ugly defiance that a lot of right-wing people feel about the whole topic. But left-wing people aren't wearing masks either, so it's clearly not the only factor.)
And I have to admit, there is a part of me that grumbles when I put on my mask. "What, am I going to have to do this forever? Do we all just have to do this for the rest of humanity's existence because of the people who are immuno-compromised?"
Which I realize is an ugly reaction. I'm actively fighting it. I still decide to put on the mask. But if even I, who am constantly reminded that people still want us to wear masks, still feel this way, it doesn't surprise me that other people might be even more careless or callous about the issue.
*There are exceptions to this. I think I will always wear masks for the rest of my life on planes/in airports/in public transit, because it's just so easy to catch any kind of contagion there. And I will also wear them when I personally have a cold or something that makes me all sneezy and gross, just because I don't want to give it to someone else!
+Unless I'm catastrophizing, but that's a different thing related to my anxiety/depression.
dollsome yesterday about mask-wearing and general Covid anxiety, and I want to expand that conversation because I'm interested in other people's povs.I see people (mostly my online friends tbh--I have not heard anyone say this in real life, which could just be reflective of the fact that I live in a red state or it could be that I have not signaled that I am open to hearing these things) asking, "Why is everyone acting like the pandemic is over? Why aren't they wearing masks? Why aren't they scared?"
And I think this raises an important distinction between perspectives on this topic, and I want to explore it from my own perspective.
I still wear masks in indoor public places. I put one on when I go to the grocery store, when I went to a play last month, and definitely always when I'm in an airport or plane.
But I really don't do that because I personally feel anxiety about catching Covid. I wear masks because I have seen so many immune-compromised people online essentially begging people to do so. They are still so scared and they feel like no one cares about them. And I want to make sure they live in a safer world and also I want them to know that I care about them. That is why I still wear masks.*
But if I wasn't hearing those voices? I would not be wearing one.
Because I don't feel the anxiety. I know intellectually that the pandemic is ongoing. But it feels over for me. Maybe this is just my own foolishness and immaturity. But I think it's actually because I'm not used to my safety being on the line.
I have had a myriad of tiny-to-medium-sized health concerns in my life (everything from stitches to IBS to clinical depression). I've known physical pain and discomfort and I've sure as hell known mental pain and discomfort. But never once has my life been on the line. When I worry about health concerns, I worry about pain, about it getting worse, etc. But I have never once felt the kind of existential fear that someone whose life is in jeopardy feels. I don't worry about dying.+ Nor have I felt the kind of everyday knowledge that people with chronic pain carry around where every action is freighted with consequences for the future (of the "If I do this today, I will literally not be able to get out of bed tomorrow" variety). I just don't have those experiences.
And I think most people don't. Most of us go through life taking our health more or less for granted. Now, this comes from a place of enormous privilege, I know that. Privilege that could disappear for anyone in seconds and without warning. But while you're operating within that privilege, I think it's really hard to make yourself feel the danger that a subset of the population feels daily.
I don't feel it. But I interact online with people who do feel it, and I care about them, and so I realize that my perspective is skewed. So I choose to wear a mask.
But if I weren't interacting with those people? Or if I was, but they weren't saying these things because they didn't feel they could trust me? I think I would think people who are still wearing masks who aren't immuno-compromised themselves are being alarmist and I would roll my eyes at them.
And I think that's where the majority of people are at. I think that is one of the two big reasons people (at least in the US) aren't wearing masks anymore and are acting like the pandemic is over. (The other is the politicization of the issue, and the ugly defiance that a lot of right-wing people feel about the whole topic. But left-wing people aren't wearing masks either, so it's clearly not the only factor.)
And I have to admit, there is a part of me that grumbles when I put on my mask. "What, am I going to have to do this forever? Do we all just have to do this for the rest of humanity's existence because of the people who are immuno-compromised?"
Which I realize is an ugly reaction. I'm actively fighting it. I still decide to put on the mask. But if even I, who am constantly reminded that people still want us to wear masks, still feel this way, it doesn't surprise me that other people might be even more careless or callous about the issue.
*There are exceptions to this. I think I will always wear masks for the rest of my life on planes/in airports/in public transit, because it's just so easy to catch any kind of contagion there. And I will also wear them when I personally have a cold or something that makes me all sneezy and gross, just because I don't want to give it to someone else!
+Unless I'm catastrophizing, but that's a different thing related to my anxiety/depression.