I told someone just the other day I don’t turn to Facebook for material for Atmore News or for “atmore” magazine. However, when I come across something on Facebook that strikes me, I may contact the author to ask permission to use what they wrote. The following was shared on Facebook but the author was not listed, so I hope I’m not violating anyone’s rights. It’s the best explanation I’ve read about spreading coronavirus.
“You wake up with a terrible cough, a fever, and severe body aches. Immediately, you rush to the doctor. Unfortunately, you’re diagnosed with COVID-19. For the last two weeks, you’ve been unaware that you were infected. For the last two weeks, you’ve ignored “the rules,” gotten together with some close friends for pizza, had a few people over, even visited some parks and beaches. You figured, ‘I don’t feel sick,’ and ‘I have the right to keep living my normal life!’
“With your diagnosis, you spend the next few days at home on the couch, feeling pretty crappy; but then you’re well again because you’re young, healthy and strong. Lucky you.
“But your best friend caught it from you during a visit to your house, and because she didn’t know she was contagious, she visited her 82-year-old grandfather, who uses oxygen tanks daily to help him breathe because he has COPD and heart failure.
“Now, he’s dead.
“Your co-worker, who has asthma, caught it too, during your little pizza get-together. Now, he’s in the ICU, and he’s spread it to a few others in his family, too – but they won’t know that for another couple of weeks yet.
“The cashier at the restaurant where you picked up the pizza carried the infection home to his wife, who has MS, which makes her immuno-suppressed. She’s not as lucky as you, so she’s admitted to the hospital because she’s having trouble breathing. She may need to be placed in a medically-induced coma and intubated; she may not get to say goodbye to her loved ones. She may die surrounded by machines, with no family at her bedside.
“All because you couldn’t stand the inconvenience of a mask; of staying home; of changing your familiar routines for just a little while.
“Grow up!”
I went to a local grocery store Sunday afternoon. I was the only person wearing a mask in the store.
Do you realize the importance of wearing a mask? I thought I was protecting myself, but the mask protects others.
As a nurse told me, “People are self-centered. The mask doesn’t protect you. It protects you from spreading it to others. I think that’s why there aren’t a lot of people wearing them. If it protected themselves, they’d wear them.”
Whether or not I’m protected against you or you’re protected against me, we need to use precautions. COVID-19 may not kill you or me, but it may kill someone we love.