To Mask or Not to Mask -That is The Question

This has been a heck of a bumpy ride over the last 5 months.  It is, after all, an unprecedented event in our lifetimes.  For most of us, it’s been about quarantine, disinfecting, mask-wearing, kids at home, working from home, or even loss of jobs. For some of us, it’s been about losing loved ones while they were alone in a hospital or nursing home, or about getting deathly ill and recovering.  Some of us have lost our businesses.  Some of us have gained or increased mental illnesses.

I, fortunately, know no one personally who has lost their lives, thank God, but I do know of some people, all elderly with existing life-threatening issues, who did die from COVID.  It is very sad. 

Having lived through this I did not feel that it has been as big of an issue for me as predicted - you know, not like a pandemic sci-fi movie.  However, having done some traveling within New England and small towns around, I am seeing many things that do strike me. Roads looking like ghost towns, where many businesses are closed; Seemingly ordinary events like a farmers market turned into a highly structured, well-spaced (enforced), and mask-wearing event.  It is so strange. It is a little like sci-fi.  What is stranger is that the more we experience this, the more it seems normal.

The New Norm.  How much I disliked that term.  I wanted the New Temporary Norm.  However, as mentioned, the more we see and experience this, the more it becomes normal and OK.  

Sci-Fi Movie - 1 year from now, we are still wearing masks and have so much more safety involved with technology stepping in.  We’ve become so used to wearing masks that we keep them all over the house, in the cars, and in our desks. If you should (God help us) forget to bring one into a store or business, an alarm goes off and you are escorted out of buildings, perhaps even arrested.  More advanced businesses have a ‘safe’ mist that covers you and your clothes as you enter buildings.  People are wearing strapped on devices that alert them when someone else (aside from the others in their party or family who wear the same coded devices) comes with 6 feet or 2 meters from them.  These devices will also track who came within close proximity to you and send information to a central health organization DB.

Sci-Fi, maybe, but as this new norm becomes THE NORM, we can more easily accept addendums and improvements to this norm.  Linguistically, we refer to this as a ‘slippery slope” and boy, does it get slippery.

Back to Mask or not to Mask.  There is so much controversy over this lately.  Granted it is mostly around personal rights.  I wear a mask wherever I am expected to - in the stores and businesses and whenever I need to get relatively close to a stranger.  Why?  I’d like to say it’s for safety, but the messages that we have gotten from the people who should know, have all been mixed.  You’d think with 22M cases, worldwide, we’d have definitive science behind preventativeness.    The WHO (not the rock band, unfortunately) says masks, then no masks, then masks again.  The CDC says masks protect you and then says they're only for protecting others.  No wonder we are confused!  Masks are enforced but you find workers wearing masks anywhere from full face to just on their chin.  Gloves look good and protective, but when you touch one person’s credit card or money and then another’s, is that safe?  And then you later wipe your face with the gloves you have on. That does not make sense.

Truthfully, masks make common sense to me.  If you wear one, you decrease the odds of any ‘droplets’ (a popular word to use when talking contagious) coming from your mouth or nose.  And something that is not mentioned much anymore, if you cough or sneeze into your elbow or arms while wearing your mask, you decrease the odds even more - common sense.  Does it do much to protect me from others?  No. Not me at least.  I don‘t wear gloves and have a habit of wiping or scratching my face.  I don’t wash with disinfectant every 3 minutes so my chances of picking up something and putting it to my face are high.  (However, if I wear a mask all the time, and wear it properly, I can’t get it to my nose and mouth.) Basically, wearing a mask will hardly help me from catching it.

So, guess what.  I wear my mask for others.  It is safer for them if I do have COVID.  More importantly, it makes them feel more comfortable and less fearful.  Fear is a big agent in this pandemic.  Fear and anxiety lessen the effectiveness of your immune system.  Makes you more susceptible to many things, including the virus.  Continued fear and anxiety could lead to chronic mental health issues.  I don’t want any of that for my neighbors.  And though wearing a mask in hot weather has made me nauseous at times, I continue to wear it when I am supposed to.

Ultimately, to wear a mask is your decision.  But if you decided not to, and you are not allowed to do things others are doing, don’t blame the particular person or establishment.  They are following the rules of the authorities in that town, state, or country.  This is the world we now live in - The New Normal.

Kevin Martin is a Mindset Coach and Co-Founder of Peak Performance Mindset Coaching. You can reach him through LinkedIn - https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/kevin-martin-b2b23b1/ to find out more about what he does and what he offers