So, for the moment, I am working in a retail environment (another job being non-retail). For the past 14 months, despite working closely with the general public, I’ve somehow managed to avoid getting Covid-infected — mostly because of mandated mutual mask-wearing (and maybe also taking vitamin D supplements, who knows...)
A couple of weeks ago, CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky pulled the rug out from underneath all of us in retail by proclaiming an official CDC position that fully vaccinated people can now (immediately) freely go about in public without wearing masks. (Fauci’s approval of Walensky’s decision doesn’t help matters much, either). And because the states follow CDC guidance (which Walensky knew quite well), that means all states — including mine — are dropping store mask mandates. There is now no more government-enforced mechanism to prevent every anti-vax and/or Covid-is-a-hoax mouth-breather from storming retail establishments with their germs. We have to pray that our own masks can serve as some sort of barrier to Covid and it’s variants.
Walensky, defending her decision: “We are asking people to be honest with themselves,” Walensky said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” which aired Sunday. “If they are vaccinated and they are not wearing a mask, they are safe. If they are not vaccinated and they are not wearing a mask, they are not safe.”
Give us a freaking break. What are you — an idiot? At least 50% of people out there now entering businesses without masks simply don’t give a crap about following any recommendations. And if a governor who’s lifting a mask mandate adds a disclaimer in Sentence Number 5 of his You-Now-Don’t-Need-to-Wear-a-Mask-Anymore Tap Dance Victory Proclamation that “those who are unvaccinated must still continue to wear a mask inside of a public place” doesn’t already know, as a politician, that a good portion of the public has the collective attention span of an insect and never makes it to Sentence Number 5, then he (or she) should be recalled immediately.
Stores setting their own mandatory mask policy? That’s a joke. No way to enforce it without government mandate. Like trying to hold back a rising tide with a fishnet. Tried it for a day, and it’s hopeless “All the other stores are letting us in without a mask. The law says now we can go anywhere we want without a mask, no matter what...” Trump barbarians storming the gates, gleefully. Maybe only 25% of our customers actually give a damn and are wearing masks because either they are not yet fully vaccinated themselves or out of an abundance of caution.
I myself got my first shot last weekend and won’t be fully vaccinated until the end of June. Until then, I and every other retail worker in the nation in similar situation having to deal with the anti-mask miscreants have to cross our fingers and hope not to get infected before full vaccination.
You know, Walensky could simply have given notice that “in 30-45 days time, the CDC will recommend that mask mandates be lifted”….