The more I think about it, the more I have a problem with people thinking they’re better than someone else because they wear a mask whenever they go outside. Presumably to protect others.
Trigger Warning: For those of you who are apparently upset by logic and reason, I’m going to warn you in advance that the mirror may look different after you read this.
I think we can all agree that influenza is deadly. The elderly and those with preexisting medical conditions are particularly susceptible to a severe reaction and potentially death from the flu. Right?
Can we also agree that sometimes, albeit rarely, an otherwise healthy person catches the flu and dies?
Everyone should be able to agree that influenza is contagious. It’s not as contagious as COVID-19 but most people catch it directly from other people.
Are you with me so far? Good. I haven’t said anything controversial up to this point so we should all be on the same page.
Here’s another easy one. Can we all agree that someone can catch the flu, bring it home and infect the rest of their family?
This next one gets a little trickier but it’s really just an extension of what we just agreed on so we should still be OK. Can we agree that someone can catch the flu, bring it home and infect an elderly relative or someone with a preexisting medical condition who is at risk of potentially dying from the flu?
Still with me? Good. Again, I haven’t said anything new or contentious so we should all be in agreement at this point.
Now, let me ask you this: Have you ever gone to work, school, church, store or any other public place when you were sick and probably should have stayed at home? Of course you did.
I think we’re all guilty of doing this at least once. Maybe you had a big project you needed to finish or an exam you didn’t want to miss. Maybe you just didn’t think you were “sick enough” to justify using one of the PTO days that you’d been saving for a vacation. Or, maybe you wanted to be able to cash out your sick days at the end of the year.
Whatever the reason, it’s highly probably that you have, at least once, gone out when you were so sick that you should have stayed in, that you made the decision to expose others to an illness, potentially with deadly results.
When you went out in public knowing very well that you were sick, you purposely put others in harm’s way. You determined on your own that the risk to someone else was acceptable. You weren’t contemplating your own personal risk level because you were already sick. You decided that you were OK with the possibility that you could start a chain reaction which may result in someone else’s death.
So, I don’t want to hear anyone take the “I’m better than you because I always wear a mask to protect others” attitude. That’s hypocritical.
What you did was worse than someone not wearing a mask when they feel perfectly fine. A healthy person has no expectation that they might be contagious, but a sick person does. And you decided it didn’t matter.
