Save lives: Wear a mask
The names and locations have been changed to protect the guilty, but if you鈥檙e thinking about 鈥渢aking out鈥� grandma or granddad just so you can get their 2002 Chevy Malibu, their new Weber Grill, or their house, the following is a roadmap for your success.
First, don鈥檛 wear a mask. Now, let me repeat that. Do not wear a mask.
Sure, you still buckle your seat belt, you threw away your cigarettes, and you avoid those 200-calorie cans of soda, but now you walk smugly into public gatherings and say, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 believe in masks. This is just the flu, and it will go away by Nov. 4.鈥�
You also boldly look at those people scowling at you and say, 鈥淎merica is a free country, and you sheep can do whatever you want, but I鈥檓 not wearing a mask, and I鈥檓 not going to socially distance myself from anyone.鈥�
A few days later when you began feeling a little achy, you didn鈥檛 let that stop you. You went into work and powered your way through what you thought was a little touch of the flu. You spent the day close talking with everyone and kept the mask you were required to wear at work either firmly below your chin or at least below your nose like a bad pair of tighty-whities.
Then, as if that蘑菇视频 not enough, you held a party for your 20 closest friends to watch a football game together while serving finger food and drinks that your unwashed fingers prepared.
Here蘑菇视频 the important part. You invited a bus driver for a local school district there, too. Then, you encouraged everyone to show their independence by not wearing a mask, you know, like real men.
Because your cough was very deep by now, and you were feeling like a hydraulic lift at the local Mack truck garage, you went to the doctor without a mask but were quarantined in the parking lot until someone in a hazmat suit came to your car and stuck a Q-tip-type device all the way through your nose and almost up to your brain. Shortly, you found out you had COVID, but don鈥檛 worry: It will be long gone after Nov. 4 because those 215,000-plus dead are just skewed statistics.
By the way, that place where you work had to close for business because everyone was exposed to your COVID. Oh, and that party you held? It蘑菇视频 turned into a super-spreader event.
How about the bus driver? Well, his route included an elementary school. On that day when he didn鈥檛 wear his mask and started feeling achy, he did help the kindergarten kids get on and off the bus. Of course, they鈥檙e all quarantined now. And their parents? Well, one of each set of parents must miss work for at least 10 days to watch their kid and pray they鈥檙e COVID-free.
I forgot to tell you he also drove for one of the athletic teams, and one of those kids tested positive, too. So, the games are canceled. Yeah, and so is the entire school district.
This is all because of one arrogant, misinformed decision to take no precautions.
If this were a true story, we would be outraged. Well, guess what? It is a true story somewhere in the United States today.
Ironically, China is wide open, back to normal, and the United States is still killing a thousand or more people a day.
Here蘑菇视频 the best part. We don鈥檛 know if some of those folks infected by Mr. Macho Super Spreader are even going to live. Did you read that?
The Malibu, the grill and the house might truly be yours after all, but the lives and treasure we鈥檝e lost from collateral damage is a hell of a price for that worn-out old car.
Wear your mask. Seriously. Surgeons, nurses and techs do all day every day.
Nick Jacobs of Pittsburgh is a senior partner with Senior Management Resources and author of the blog healinghospitals.com.