Covid is still killing and disabling people. Mask mandates are gone and many medical staff opt not or refuse to wear them. Politicians are creating policies designed for their personal political gain, rather than public health. N95 masks are still one of the important tools for stopping the spread of covid, but they've been largely removed from CDC covid public health policy. Wear a mask. Defend yourself and your comrades. Resist the propaganda.
The nursing home I work at is in outbreak mode again since 6 residents tested positive for COVID. The place is so understaffed that I saw one of them wheeling themselves around the building, at first with a mask on and then later without the mask. She kept trying to enter the kitchen and she's demented so there's not a lot that can be said to her to help at this point so I was just darting into the kitchen and keeping the doors locked despite it being like 36C in there.
Masks a 'highly recommended' but still not forced. Surprisingly, everyone except the 2 people in the office and the guy in the laundry room were wearing them as far as I could tell. Was extremely weird since they all took their masks off immediately upon the requirements being removed despite being people who should know better. The worst people about this stuff have been the residents' family members and not anyone working there though. Almost all of them complain about masks, etc. And almost every single time one of them picks up a resident to do something with their families for like a holiday or something they come back testing positive.
It's just me and one other kitchen worker wearing masks voluntarily and she won't wear an N95, just a surgical mask, even though I got N95s made available at the worker entrance by talking to the maintenance. Which is basically worthless when you're the only one wearing a surgical mask (other than myself when I'm working with her).
I STILL see people wearing cloth masks (like 50% of the people that I see wearing masks in the grocery store, the other 50% are clearly old people whom their doctors gave or specifically instructed to wear masks) and I have to assume they just don't want their faces seen for a variety of reasons because I cannot understand how'd they'd be understanding that COVID's still a problem but not know how shit cloth masks are.
Thanks for wearing a mask, and thanks for wearing an N95. Even preventing one case is worth it. Thanks for doing what you can to mask, make masks available, and keep residents safe. Maybe I should have seen it coming, but I never expected the systems of power to give up this much. They sent people back to in person work, removed any lockdowns and lockdown payments, but for some reason I didn't think they'd backpedal on the masks. But here we are. If we had mass communication systems built around the needs and well-being of the people, I think nearly everyone would be masking. But instead we have mass media that can manipulate vast swathes of people into doing what's convenient for the capitalists, no matter the cost in blood.
I think it's useful to keep wearing masks, both because of the protection it provides us and others, and as a visual reminder to people that the pandemic is ongoing. Maybe over time we can help contribute to a culture of masking, which we need, since this shit is still killing and disabling people, and it's not going away. I appreciate you keeping up the masking habit and making them available to others. Thanks for caring and staying true to your values. [/gen]