Who was that masked woman?

This article originally appeared in the February 2023 edition of the journal Comet.

Recently, I was in a big suburban shopping centre. With a lot of people. And yet, to paraphrase Wordsworth, I wandered lonely in a crowd: the ONLY person wearing a mask.

As someone whose husband is a long-time epidemiologist – since back in what now seems another life, in those pre-pandemic days when not every second doctor in the media was one – I get first-hand information, frequently, on how we’re not out of the COVID woods yet, by a long shot, with ever more variants spinning off the original virus. And so, how important it continues to be, to wear effectively protective masks indoors, when out and about.

I do not enjoy wearing masks. Unfailingly, after a while the pressure of the elastic behind the ears builds up to a steadily uncomfortable irritation. But I continue to doggedly keep them on. I’m 80, and – so – in one of the more vulnerable groups. And I’ve read enough about the variety of possible effects in all ages, including the alarming symptoms of long COVID, even in some of the hyper-vaccinated like myself, not to be tempted to risk getting it.

And even though I joke that getting it is a case of not “if” but “when”, so far we two continue to be amongst the decreasing number who haven’t yet had it.

Now, with our governments being variously more responsive to the pleas of business than the advice of health professionals, I fear that COVID will become more rampant as the days of required isolation have decreased to zero, while we’re encouraged to recast this concerning range of variants – with potentially long term effects for some – as just a similar condition to the flu.

What business overlooks is that allowing infected people back to work, especially with their workmates unmasked, is likely to have a whole lot more of their staff heading off to their sick beds, which - in turn - is likely to be literally counterproductive in the long run. Just before the Christmas holidays, as a for instance, a school had to close down for a period of time, and this was because – while only one student had a case of COVID – one third of the staff were off sick with it

I worry about our community at large and meanwhile – since when push comes to shove it makes sense to get health advice from a doctor rather than from a politician – I hope that the health message takes hold, so that I won’t be the only person masked-up in supermarkets, and in shopping malls and cinemas and theatres and meetings, and any other indoor venues where people gather.

And, now that we are getting into 2023, I hope that all readers have had an enjoyable holiday season, and have put doing all that it takes to keep safe and healthy high on the list of New Year resolutions.

Anne Ring 2023©