Masking Up

 

Monday, April 6, 2020

I have yet to sew any face masks. Stores are completely out of N95's - the gold standard of face masks. My daughter Angela says she has a couple of extra N95's she will send us. She and Harry wear theirs to the corner grocery store. They seem to take it in stride.

I always feel like a pariah while wearing a face mask in a doctor’s office. I imagine people staring at me and wondering, “What’s she got?” I feel like I’m advertising my health condition, so isn’t that a HIPAA violation? 

Wondering if Angela might feel a similar awkwardness, I asked her, “Do you feel uncomfortable wearing a mask in public?”

“No, not at all,” she said. “Lots of people are wearing them here.”

Aw, Snap!

San Francisco, where she lives, might be ahead of the game. In fact, the CDC has changed its tune on mask wearing. It now advocates using two-layer cloth masks. 

I guess I’ll have to get over myself. With the new guidelines, everyone will soon wear face masks in public, whether they feel sick or not. Because it looks like people can spread the disease even if they have no symptoms. In other words, we might not know we’re sick until we’ve infected others. And then it’s too late. I will make some masks as soon as I return home to my sewing machine.

I live in Seattle and have time to think. Muse, even. Retired from research consulting and report writing, I now write about family history and life around me.

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