COVID-19: Mixed Messages

Hello Readers.

If you’re happy this Thursday, I bet you’re not watching the news.

America has dealt with a trifecta of troubles in 2020. Haven’t we?

The entire nation has been focused on learning how to protect our families from the Coronavirus since early March. Simultaneously, we were all affected in different ways by the systemic economic and financial devastation. Now, we are all in shock over the violent riots and indefensible looting of businesses – small and large – which have already lost so much revenue.

As of now, I don’t watch the news very much anymore.

After a long day in my home office, one of my guilty pleasures is binge watching TV for an inordinate number of hours each night. I’ve watched all 105 seasons of Downton Abbey… TWICE.

I love me some good TV, “sha”!!! – as they would say in my home state of Louisiana!

There’s a sticky note in my daytimer when The Crown is suppose to drop a new season and can’t wait for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel? Love, love, love Miriam Maisel. But then again, who doesn’t?

I just don’t have time to watch cable news at night. The viewing choice is easy. Should I try to stomach more news on the disease, death, and destruction plaguing our nation…or tune into Amazon Prime and watch Dr. Gregory House cure the incurable at the fictitious Princeton-Plainsboro Hospital in New Jersey?

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Having said all of the above, it just so happened that one night last week, my husband recorded Fox News’ Ingraham Angle just for me…. because there was a segment on masks and Coronavirus.

And if you’re tired of me writing about the evolving information surrounding masks….you have got to sympathize with my tolerant husband who hears my ranting and raving about masks every morning during our walks around the lake.

On the May 27th show, I believe, Laura Ingraham showed a montage of 3 different clips of our nation’s pandemic expert who has been Corona-Consultant-in-Chief for President Trump. I can sum up his medical opinion on masks, simply as: This, That, and The Other.

In March, the expert’s message on masks was THIS.

And in April, the message was THAT.

And finally in May, the message was totally THE OTHER.

What. the. Heck. (Actually, I wanted to write: What tha’ H~!!)

The average American (& I describe myself as average) is just trying to listen and learn from the experts. Is that too much to ask?

Not to point fingers, throw shade, or cast blame on that particular physician quoted on Laura Ingraham’s show – because most television docs tried to convince us – average, non-medical, virus-free simpletons out here in America-land – we should NOT wear masks.

Suffice-it-to-say, I’m not an immunologist or virologist or a ‘pandemicologist’…..but even I knew it was not a scientific secret that masks might? possibly? provide some form of protection for a healthy person.

We have heard from the medical community – in large part – the virus particles enter through our mouths and our noses. So let’s cover up those holes? Does that sound super smart and scientific to you?

So how do the ‘experts’ rationalize their ever-changing viewpoints on masks?

By offering a condescending explanation. That’s how.

Now we are told that over time, new research data can change the medical and scientific communities’ collective opinions on masks. We are told that there was an underestimation of asymptomatic shedders. Early on, many physicians were warning us about infected, contagious people exhibiting no outward symptoms could still spread COVID-19. And at the same moment in time, we were instructed not to wear masks.

The fact that this new narrative on masks was attributed to newly discovered and groundbreaking revelations is more than difficult to digest. Who believes that doctors just learned of the unexpected efficacy of wearing masks to protect a healthy individual?

Are masks the Holy Grail? Are masks the silver bullet? Can we claim that masks are the perfect prophylactic? No, No, and No.

But wearing a cloth face covering is such a simple, small something – well within our control as Americans – with really big results to help mitigate viral exposure.

What if we were told in early March that masks might help mitigate the spread? Perhaps, we could have protected ourselves as small business owners or retail shopkeepers by wearing masks and requiring our customers and clients to wear scarves or neck gaiters around their faces (if they didn’t have a sewing machine or couldn’t order a cloth face mask from Vera Bradley.com). Or how about restaurateurs implementing mask guidelines for their servers and for back-of-the-house staff in charge of meal prep? Could we have kept America Open for Business? I don’t know.

But here’s what I do know….Masks would have been a worthy bet early on as a unified nation trying to slow the spread, secure the overall economy, and to protect paychecks.

That “metamorphose mask message” of This, That, and The Other – gives us cause to pause. So what about the next disaster? As I’ve said before, let us learn from our mistakes and missteps in 2020. And hopefully, we (or future generations) will handle the next pandemic with less drastic and draconian measures resulting in less damage and despair.