Wearing a mask at Walmart in June of 2021 - COVID-19


It's Sunday, June 6th, 2021, and if you're reading this some time in the future (which is why I'm writing this down now), you may be puzzled as to why some people, like me, are choosing to continue to wear a mask long after they had been vaccinated. I'll see if I can explain.

Here's a little of the background, which you can skip over if you already know this. A strain of flu, which is contagious through the air, started becoming a worldwide pandemic in the spring of 2020. No vaccine was available at the time, and people were recommended to simply stay away from people, and if they had to be in a public place, even briefly, to wear a mask. This was far from an ideal solution, but until the vaccines became available, in early 2021, it was the best that people could do. The strain of flu, by the way, was a type of coronavirus, which was named Coronavirus Disease 19 (2019 being the year that it was discovered).

The effort that went into developing, and then administering the vaccine has been amazing for me to watch. The best way that I can describe it is as a Total War effort against the disease. It was made available to everyone here in the United States, and in theory everyone is vaccinated. But that's just in theory. In reality there are a lot of people who aren't.

My concern is with the very weak, and the innocent. Some people simply don't have a strong enough immune system to take a vaccine. They could be very elderly, or have a compromised immune system for one reason or another. And they remain at risk, even today.

When I stopped for a pit stop at my local Walmart this morning, and started strolling towards the door, bursting with health, I had my mask hanging on my ear. Walmart has been very clear, it's no longer a requirement there. But the person that I was going to walk past looked so vulnerable, and they were wearing a mask, so in solidarity I masked up before I passed them.

When I got into the store, I saw that the majority of people were wearing masks. It was early on a Sunday morning, and presumably they were mostly elderly people. I did see some unmasked people, and one would assume that it meant that they had been vaccinated. But there really is no way to tell who is an anti-vaxxer. I've seen them on TikTok holding up three fingers like a Boy Scout salute, but otherwise there's no way to tell.

I've lived long enough to know that rule followers tend to look around to see what other people are doing. And rule followers live in fear of being caught breaking the rules. And if I can be one more person that they see wearing a mask, it just might convince them that there's some kind of rule, and that they might get busted. Of course there isn't, it's just a basic concern for your fellow human beings, and while that may not motivate some people, I kind of wish it would.

These are interesting times.
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