Get the Vaccine, Wear a Mask
I am sure some of you are tired of hearing me get up on my soapbox about Covid and what to do, but so many things keep happening that is making me absolutely livid and I feel like routing up the information and the facts of what we do now, maybe some of the confusion can be mellowed out. I am not under any delusion that I am somehow the most knowledgeable on this topic, but I am going to use the authorities on this topic in this post. Maybe someone who needs to hear some of this can see it and read it and understand the gravity of the situation we are still in.
Let’s start with the fact that we are the last developed nation to have this many Covid cases daily and to have regular life still so closed down again. The UK is a close second, but their second lockdown helped quite a lot. Parts of Canada are third and are headed back into lockdown as well, but America still remains at the top for the number of cases being seen, the number of people refusing to get a vaccine, and we are still the most closed developed nation. A lot of people are getting really antsy and want things to go back to normal and feel like the government is doing both not enough and too much, and I get it I do I swear, but if we don’t suck it up and get it together, we will be doing this for so much longer.
The first step of this is still wearing a mask in large groups and in stores even if you are vaccinated. Not everyone can get vaccinated because of health reasons, and the vaccine is not 100% effective. It significantly lowers the risk of a vaccinated person getting Covid and if they are a-symptomatic, that vaccinated person can’t transmit the virus nearly as easily. Masks are also important because the vaccine doesn’t cover every single strain of Covid out there and even if you are vaccinated and the new strain could be much less severe for you, it’s still not something you want.
Quit hanging out in large groups fun of unvaccinated people without a mask on. The CDC has lifted some mask rules for groups of five or less who are all vaccinated in that they can safely be outside without masks on, but anything over that you still need to wear a mask, vaccinated or not! My county is very heavily populated by college kids who have decided to not listen to the rules so we keep having to go back into level red, where restaurants close and the number of people allowed in retail spaces and salons goes back way down. Parties and massive gatherings are not necessary right now and could be one of the keys to be able to get life back to some semblance of normal. I get that graduation season is coming up but all of us last year also had to forfeit the right to celebrate our accomplishments, so call one us and vent about it since we understand, do not throw a party anyway, and risk getting or giving someone Covid.
If you are someone who has decided to wait to get vaccinated for whatever reason, then you need to continue living life like you did last summer. You are at higher risk of getting it and giving it to someone else so if you are choosing to wait to get the vaccine, you realistically can go to work where you wear a mask, the grocery store where you wear a mask, and then your house. That’s it. You don’t get to have a social life this summer or get to be outside without a mask on. You are at greater risk for getting Covid and giving it to someone else and there is no way for things to get back to normal until we all start to get vaccinated and have something very close to herd immunity.
If you have concerns about the vaccine and long-term health effects, talk to a medical professional or look to the CDC. Getting vaccine information off of Facebook or any other social media isn’t the way to handle getting information about a vaccine. For instance: there is a rumor going around on Facebook that the vaccine of any brand can cause infertility. This rumor started from a mother who is an anti-vaxxer and is not a medical professional or scientist in any way. But it caught on like wildfire and now so many people are afraid to get vaccinated because it may ruin their chances of conceiving, but there has not been one study or conclusion from scientists or medical experts to suggest that this is a possibility. The CDC is recommending that women who are pregnant or breastfeeding get the vaccine because it can pass the antibodies safely to the babies and does not cause them any harm or side effects. If this is a concern for you, then please talk to your doctor and they can also explain this and most likely give you access to information I do not have to help explain that there has been no shown risk to harming fertility or really any other long term health effect. So far, the scientists think that next year we will all most likely need a booster shot, but that’s about it as far as the long-term effects of the vaccine go.
Last but not least, if you are still against masks and the vaccine, do not take it out on the retail employees, servers, grocery store clerks, and any other person you interact with on a regular basis in public. We are just following our state rules and our company rules and if you have the ability to yell at us, that means we have no power in the situation. A couple of days ago while I was at my retail job, I asked a man to put a mask on and he called me a “bitchy libtard” and refused to wear a mask. Luckily I work for people who allow me to kick people like that out of the store, but there is still no need to act this way towards people who have to follow the rules and can do nothing to change them. We are making minimum wage and working with the general public during a pandemic. Do not yell at us simply because you think Covid is a joke. If you think it’s a joke, great. But you still have to wear your mask and do not yell at the people who are just trying to do their jobs. And the only way to actually get things back to normal is to get the vaccine. Weird how that comes full circle isn’t it?
I get that this is all so cumbersome and irritating. I really do. It is not fun to wear a mask, put life plans on hold, have to take a job you don’t want, not be able to get a better job, feeling stuck, maybe having to move home, changing or canceling wedding plans, and so much more. This pandemic has absolutely SUCKED. But the only way that things are ever going to get better and the only way that we will be able to get on with our lives is if we get vaccinated and still wear a mask. Stoping the spread is what will allow things to open again. Herd immunity is what will allow us to get back to normal and enjoying our lives. So, talk to your doctor if you have concerns, and then help the rest of us who already have the vaccine to get things moving again.
Madey
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Cover Art by Avery Lynch