COLUMN – She’s sitting across from me. A lady of advanced age, but as we would write in the file: “looks younger than calendar age”.
She tells about her complaints of lung covid. “I really don’t understand how I picked it up, we are so careful!”. She is sitting opposite me without a mouth mask.
Cognitive dissonance, I think it’s an interesting term. We’re just plodding along on this one never ending shitshow of a pandemic it seems, with a plate in front of our heads as big as the ice floe that has broken off from Greenland.
I can’t blame her, although I have to make an effort not to utter the phrase “yet you sit here in front of me, without a mouth mask.”
The information from the government has been sad. They always shout so loudly that prevention is extremely important, but that’s it. Call. They are no longer a shining example. Prevention has become a term that mainly contains a lot of hot air, a sales pitch with no real substantive actions or changes attached to it for a long time.
Now that the numbers are rising again, we are entering a repeat of the fall of 2020, and last year. Masks are not recommended, but old hand washing is. Admitting that COVID is spreading through the air is, of course, of the fools: then the government should take action and protect its citizens! That is really a bridge too far. Some had confidence in the new minister because he comes from the field, but that bubble soon burst. The government is run by lobbyists from the wrong field, and would rather see profits rise than protect citizens from what now appears to be a debilitating chronic disease that is affecting more and more people. And these are not only the vulnerable among us, but also people who used to be completely healthy.
In addition, that comment of mine had not helped, for her. It is important that I offer a listening ear. Her complaints will not get any better. We also discussed other health issues of hers and decide to do a blood test soon to see how things are going. She is relieved that she can come back to me one more time and some things will be checked.
I have not stopped wearing my FFP2 mask at work. I was the only one. My employer recently asked me: “Do you feel safe at work?”, and no, not really. I don’t think that feeling will ever come back.
This piece originally appeared on the blog SisterBlackbird. It’s from a while ago – because it provides a striking practical illustration of what Steeph wrote here a few days ago, we don’t want to withhold this piece from you, though.
