Sick-a-palooza

Maybe it’s just me, and maybe it’s just confirmation bias, but I’m sitting at home sick again, and it seems like kids are much more sick than usual this fall. I know that with MC, it feels like she’s been home sick more often than she’s been at school.

I suppose this makes sense. Kids went for so long either isolated at home or masked at school, that now that they’re all back together and unmasked, germs are just having a field day with everything. But then again, that leads me to a larger topic: masking.

I had very much hoped one of the lasting effects of the pandemic would be that Americans would start to mask when they were sick. I’m not talking about masking all the time because there’s a chance you might be sick. I just mean that when you’re actively coughing, sneezing, have a sore throat, and/or blowing your nose all the time, that it would be courteous to have a mask on, just for the sake of not spreading those germs to the people around you.

Instead, we’ve somehow ended up more or less right back where we started. I see people around me actively sniffling and wiping their noses and sneezing, and they’re blissfully unmasked. So maybe we’re not quite back where we started, because back then, I didn’t think about those things. And I got sick.

I’ve been wearing a mask at home around my family while I’m sick. Why? Because I love my family, and this is miserable, and if wearing a mask will help them to not get this, then I’m all for that. But I think when I’m out in public, I’m either going to have to start getting used to just having a mask with me and putting it on when someone sick decides to start sharing my air space, or else I’ll just wear it as a kind of default setting if I’m going into areas that are particularly crowded. (Probably more during the colder months, as that’s generally when more illnesses are kicking around.)

Or maybe I’ve just become a germaphobe over the past two and a half years. What’s your take on all of this? If you’re sick, do you think it’s courteous to wear a mask, or do you not think it’s a big deal? If you’re around someone who’s sick, are you actively annoyed/disappointed if they’re not masked?

Inquiring minds want to know.

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