When I first wrote this post, I was angry. Stream of consciousness venting full of anger and frustration at people. I’m calmer now.
But... if you refuse to wear a mask in public spaces for any reason other than you actually can’t, I still think you’re a maskhole. And my bar for mask wearing is pretty damn high. If a quadriplegic who runs their wheelchair with their chin can wear a mask, guess what? So can you!
Public health should be everyone’s priority right now. I have people I care about all over the world who are immunocompromised. Some are vaccinated, but their immune system isn’t strong enough even with the vaccine to fight off COVID. Some are unable to be vaccinated because their systems are so compromised, they just can’t.
And apparently masking to protect each other is an ‘emotional issue’ for some people. Guess what? My friends staying safe and not dying is an ‘emotional issue’ for me.
Well, they should just stay home! Oh? Well, I think you should just stay home if you’re unvaccinated and/or refuse to mask up. If you’re unvaccinated, you are more likely to take an ICU or other hospital bed. My friends need those beds.
I work with disabled people. They have been discriminated against for forever - doctors assuming they can’t understand what’s going on/can’t advocate for themselves. And during this little pandemic? A very real fear that if there were one bed open and two patients who were exactly the same level of illness, same age, same sex, with the only difference being one has a disability? Who gets the bed?
Yes. This is a real fear. And you know what? I’m okay with a hospital choosing a bed for a vaccinated person over a willfully unvaccinated person at this point, because we’ve all had the opportunity to get the vaccine for free - aka paid for by our tax dollars - and instead people choose to print fake cards and ingest horse dewormer. Because that makes sense.
These are realities happening in hospitals primarily in the South currently, and it’s burning out the health care workers. Community transmission rates are high everywhere, but hospitals in some states are close to collapse. They don’t have the staff to take care of all the patients. A hospital near me has had almost a 25% increase in transfer patients lately. We have a pretty high vaccination rate, so our hospitals are not straining under the pressure like they were last year.
So, you’ve chosen to go about your life unvaccinated, no mask, and now you’re sick with COVID. The only bed available for you is three states over. Assuming they can get you there before you go too far downhill, you have no support system nearby. No one to advocate for you. If you die, it’s alone. Just like last year when we didn’t have many good treatment options and no vaccines. And you know what? The health care workers might not really care that much either because you chose this.
So, when does this end? When do I stop telling you you’re a maskhole?
At the rate we’re going? Never. Get vaccinated. Wear a mask. If you think this is a political issue, guess what? It’s not. Except that places where people I love live - I’m looking at you, Florida - have made it a political issue and have not taken the steps needed to protect people, especially children.
Masks save lives. Vaccinations save lives. If you want this to be over, stop for a moment and consider how your actions can affect people outside of yourself. It’s called empathy and living in a modern society. Freedom is not free. We all have to work together to earn it.