"I'd Have To Quit" Said The Front-Line Worker

"Flaming Goat's Blood" by Herr D on heromachine. He doesn't depict many people feeling sick, reacting in distaste, having discussions, or speaking of restaurant food. This picture had all three, so may be more topical.-Shelob

  

--much. Yeah, it was a pretty bad stomach bug.

Not COVID-19.

No, nothing dangerous at all. Just really unpleasant. I'm not likely to get covid, I wear a mask! On that subject, I'm about to copy-paste something from an email for the blog--

NAME REDACTED interview from  NAME REDACTED ?

[pause] yes?

PASTENOW subroutine:

At the end of my visit to the clinic, I asked a nurse I'd heard was going on her break soon if she liked cheeseburgers. With a polite smile, she pulled off her gloves, turned her wedding ring toward me, and said her husband and her were not eating out much to save a bit of money. I laughed, apologized for sounding like I meant a date, showed her MY wedding ring, and explained I wanted her to talk shop while eating it, that I'm a blogger. 

It felt weird saying that, since I don't really do journalism much, but it's true. She took off her name tag before telling me she couldn't talk about patients' medical information. 

"HIPA, I know. This is more about interaction."

"I don't have permission to talk to the press about my company," she said, like she's said that a hundred times a week. It was flattering as well as worrisome to be referred to as the press, but I ignored that as best I could.

"Leave company politics out of it. I don't know anything about that anyway." 

"No names?" She raised a stern nurse eyebrow, like she was successfully convincing an asthmatic it REALLY WAS high time to give up smoking completely.

"I don't even use MY name. Too many stupid-crazy people out there." I think THAT'S what convinced her to meet me down the block. She walked in with not one, but two friends. They ordered first and stepped out. I paid for her combo and bought nothing for me. My stomach was still feeling funny, and it wasn't time for fast food yet. We stepped out of the restaurant. One of her friends held her bag and drink while she ate. The interview went very nearly exactly like this:

Me: What is the most convincing thing you can tell people who don't believe masks do anything?

Her: If people wear them wrong, or wear really substandard ones, they don't work well enough to bother with. But convincing? I'm insulted that people would think I'd bother if they DIDN'T work. I love my children. I love my husband. If masks wouldn't keep me safe, I'd have to quit. I couldn't do this job.

Me: That's good. What about convincing people who think that only weak people get COVID?

Her: Madonna got COVID, and she's a big health nut. Olympic athletes have gotten COVID. They might have better odds of a full recovery, but they still get it, and they still spread it. That kind of macho crap is stupid anyway. A lot of us like our parents and grandparents and babies and don't want them to die.

Me: What did you think of our president's case.

Her: I don't know his doctor. I would tend to believe he didn't have it at ALL based on how many things he's said that were just stupid lies.

--at that point, one of her friends pointed out it was fairly certain that Trump had been exposed to it.

Her: Okay, then he may have had a really mild case, or been asymptomatic or nearly, but he got better too quick for it to be a serious case. Serious means he'd be unfit to continue being president for a month. Serious doesn't mean being better in less than a week with no pale face, stagger, cough? So he at LEAST exaggerated. But he's a <expletive deleted>

Me: Politician. Right. How do you feel about people claiming masks infringe upon their freedom?

Her: [After some laughter with friends.] How free do their faces have to be? I wear a mask sometimes eighteen hours a day. I'M tough enough. And I'M still free. Should people be free enough to kill themselves? Maybe. Should people be free to help kill others? NO. [She shook her finger then.]

Me: That's pretty clear. How about health concerns?

Her: There ARE mask spacers out there. They might make the masks less effective, but they allow protection at reduced stress on the lungs of asthmatics, for example. I really enjoy laughing at people sometimes who say, "I can't breathe." IF YOU CAN SPEAK, YOU'RE BREATHING. I've had people tell me they couldn't breathe while they were on oxygen. Their monitor would be on 99%, and they couldn't breathe. [She rolled her eyes.]

Me: 99%?

Her: Percent of blood oxidation. Ninety is plenty. We have people who try to wimp out on doing anything. Not just enemas and shots--PILLS! We have people who try to wimp out on taking PILLS! So naturally some wimp out on wearing masks. We've actually sent some people home for it.

Me: Sent home patients?

Her: If they don't want what's good for them, why should they come to us at all?! Making other people in the waiting areas sicker? If they can't even wear a mask while we're near them for two minutes, they need to stay home. WE have patients who actually NEED us and will do what we tell them to stay healthy. [There was some cheering on from friends at that point.]

Me: Thank you for your time.

Her: Good trade. I spill my guts, and you make me fat!

With laughter all around and goodbyes, parting of ways took place then.

That was an interesting interaction.

I'm glad I had it. I'm sick of seeing stuff all over the internet where people claim to know things when all they did was listen to a politician or read a pundit's work. A LOT OF NURSES CAN'T AFFORD TO LIVE LIES.  THEY ARE SAFE OR THEY GET SICK TOO. There isn't enough unity among them to play to a conspiracy or a political stance. Some of them are probably still Republicans. They just can't afford to ignore reality, that's all.

This posts now. Speedy recovery, Herr D.

Than--