In my house, this is one of the few reminders of Covid. I have masks like that, near the door or in my bag, in my husband’s car, that we keep for “emergencies”.
Well, not TRULY an emergency. We just keep them in case we have to travel to a place where they are mandatory, or just strongly suggested.
One of those places might be a hospital, or nursing home with fragile residents. I don’t object much to that, as the distress patients experience at perceived threats outweighs my distaste for wearing coverings that interfere with communication. As it’s probably not going to be a lengthy visit, I focus on being there (and, sadly, realizing that I won’t be included in any conversation - people get quite impatient at having to repeat themselves).
Yes, my hearing is that bad. I’ve recently moved from the mild to moderate level, to the moderate-edging-on-severe level. Even the best hearing aids will often not return all sounds to crisp and clear, although they will certainly improve the situation.
There are ‘news’ items lately warning of even more potential epidemics on the horizon - Covid variants, TB and measles - primarily brought in by the flood of illegals, and assorted tropical diseases that generally keep in the tropics, absent nefarious or careless actions.
Most people are skeptical of these attempts to hack into our fear systems. A few just mouth platitudes about new vaccinations, but most are adamant about not buying into the hype.
In the process of forcing a substantial part of the population to ‘get the shot’ (and boosters, too), the Official Experts experienced an outcome they didn’t expect - they Broke the Default Option of Accepting Immunization Mandates.
What used to be a fringe attitude - my child is NOT going to get immunized! - has become to seem less fringe, and more sensibly skeptical. Mind you, few are saying that they are against shots for the major diseases, but many are more ready to forego some of those on the schedules, or delay them until the child is older. The Official Schedule below:
Now, many of those are recommended because so many families put young children in day care - and, it is true that children in crowded settings of dubious cleanliness and with unrelated persons present (both child and adult) are at risk of catching some dangerous diseases. But those same children, cared for at home by near family members, do not have the same elevated risk.
As far as adults, I’m against forcing them to take meds that have not gone through a lengthy process of testing. If a business wants to OFFER flu or other seasonal shots to their employees, that’s fine, if it’s optional and no penalty is attached to refusal.
I only encountered mandatory shots once in the workplace - I worked for an agency that provided services/care for highly vulnerable clients. They set up times for all employees to get Hepatitis B shots. After I’d finished the second shot, I happened to visit my doctor for something unrelated, and found that I was positive for Hep B.
Apparently, I’d been exposed many years before, so the shots were unnecessary. No one bothered to check before trotting us down for our group injections.
That incident just involved a waste of money and time. There are other concerns, including the practice of loading up kids with multiple shots at the same time, many of which will not be needed, as they protect against unlikely outcomes (for children not in group/institutional situations in their preschool years).
Other outcomes of the Covid Panic by government include:
Long-lasting distrust of health care professionals
Skepticism of media, government, and other ‘authoritative’ organizations
Both academic and social skills of many students deteriorated significantly
Local volunteer organizations, churches, sports teams - all those, and many more, disintegrated. They have NOT returned, or continue to exist in reduced form.
Many college students, because they were limited to virtual classes, failed to meet people, gain lifelong experiences and friendships, and learn to navigate the world of romance and dating. This does not bode well for family formation for an entire cohort.
I could name other issues, but I think it’s clear that there are very few situations requiring immunizations of the unwilling. We need to work to reduce the recommended shots to a minimum for the average child. A second list of RECOMMENDED shots (NOT mandatory) would be aimed at those kids who were in non-family group care at a young age. Such kids really are more vulnerable to disease.
But, it’s STILL always the parents’ choice.
My wife and I will never forget what those evil people did. NEVER.
Govt, medical community, media, elder care facilities, jab pushers, all of them.
The damage done to a generation of children, the uncountable national treasure lost and stolen, the trust stolen. Not too mention the family members lost to the insanity of it.
By us refusing the jab, we have been excommunicated by a few family members.
No, we will never forget. It is gonna be really hard to try and forgive the family that cut us off, if they even ask for forgiveness. If they do that for a shot, how much did we really mean to them to begin with?
I am also essentially deaf. Mostly work related. There are hearing aids that help, unfortunately for me the only ones that do help are quite pricey.