A Little Notice Would Have Been Nice

On Friday, the Virginia governor decided that he would follow CDC guidelines beginning that night, meaning people who have been vaccinated need not wear masks.

Basically, that means no one will be wearing masks, because people locally have fought wearing masks from day one. I do not know why. It's fine that they must wear a shirt and shoes into a store but not a mask during a pandemic.

Or maybe they were fine with 580,000 people dying.

You will have to ask them.

I found wearing a mask at first to be anxiety-provoking, but now not wearing one is even more anxiety-provoking than wearing one ever was.

So I would have preferred a week's notice before the CDC and the governor muddled things, so I could have made a much-needed trip to Walmart while people were supposed to be wearing masks. I know they weren't wearing masks anyway at Walmart because my friends have told me that, but at least before Friday the odds of more mask wearing was slightly better.

Now I suspect fewer masks everywhere. I, for one, plan to wear one anyway, even though I have been vaccinated. Not to keep away Covid, but to keep away everything else. I have always caught every virus and bacterial infection that makes the rounds. If it weren't for antibiotics, I'd be dead.

When I think of all of the months I have spent hacking, choking, and drowning in my sinus drainage, when it could have been alleviated by wearing a mask, it makes me angry. Why didn't someone tell me before that it would make such a difference? It's not our societal norm here, that's why. It's also against the law in Virginia to wear a facial covering. Here's the code section:

§ 18.2-422. Prohibition of wearing of masks in certain places; exceptions.

It shall be unlawful for any person over 16 years of age to, with the intent to conceal his identity, wear any mask, hood or other device whereby a substantial portion of the face is hidden or covered so as to conceal the identity of the wearer, to be or appear in any public place, or upon any private property in this Commonwealth without first having obtained from the owner or tenant thereof consent to do so in writing. However, the provisions of this section shall not apply to persons (i) wearing traditional holiday costumes; (ii) engaged in professions, trades, employment or other activities and wearing protective masks which are deemed necessary for the physical safety of the wearer or other persons; (iii) engaged in any bona fide theatrical production or masquerade ball; or (iv) wearing a mask, hood or other device for bona fide medical reasons upon (a) the advice of a licensed physician or osteopath and carrying on his person an affidavit from the physician or osteopath specifying the medical necessity for wearing the device and the date on which the wearing of the device will no longer be necessary and providing a brief description of the device, or (b) the declaration of a disaster or state of emergency by the Governor in response to a public health emergency where the emergency declaration expressly waives this section, defines the mask appropriate for the emergency, and provides for the duration of the waiver. The violation of any provisions of this section is a Class 6 felony.

The governor said he would take some action so people could still wear masks after his executive order about masks ends June 30. But it would take an act of the legislature to make a permanent change, and if the Republicans take the House of Delegates or the Virginia Senate, that won't happen because those folks live in some anti-science fantasyland.

So I plan to have my doctor write me a prescription to wear a mask indefinitely, to have on my person, because I have been much less ill since I started wearing a mask and stopped being out among people. I think my doctor will agree to this because I know she's tired of prescribing me antibiotics every couple of months. She was surprised when I had a sinus infection in mid-April and she looked back. "We haven't had you an antibiotic since November!" she exclaimed. "That's the longest I think you've ever gone without one."

Antibiotics are not good for you. Once a year, maybe, but I averaged an antibiotic probably every two or three months pre-pandemic. In 2020, I had an antibiotic twice, and only one time so far this year.

I plan to continue to use antibacterial soap in the car (I did that pre-pandemic anyway), and to wash my hands every time I come in the house.

Since I stopped biting my nails this past year, that has helped some too, I suspect. So I will keep clipping those things short so they don't invite me to bite them.

I don't know if I will continue to change shoes and have "outside shoes" and "inside shoes." I might, because it is not that much of an inconvenience and I think it keeps dust and dirt out of the house.

Grocery pickup will still be a thing for me, too. I had planned to resume shopping in the store since I am fully vaccinated, but with the mask mandate lifted, I think I might be better off to limit that to once a month and do pickup the rest of the time.

Many of the items I was ordering online from Walmart and having shipped here are now only available for pickup at the stores. I assume Walmart is trying to move people back into the brick and mortar buildings and away from shopping online as much. They have to pay the light bill somehow, I suppose.

My brother told me I live in a bubble. I do. I almost have to because I'm so sensitive to things. I'd rather be healthy than adventuresome, although it would be nice if I could be both. Just not in the cards for me, I guess.