Mask Up

Masks. What a surprisingly political topic this has become, and I would say to not get me started on the arguments against them, but...well, my getting started on them is what brings you here, isn’t it?

So to start this off, a disclaimer: I am not a doctor. I am not a nurse. I am a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA)/Healthcare Tech (HCT). However, my opinions and other statements come from what I’ve seen in the hospital during my time as a CNA, what I’ve heard from nurses and doctors, and some of my own personal experiences on either side of my hospital’s doors.

Also, yes, this is biased, I would not recommend using this in your persuasive essay.

“What about the people with anxiety/PTSD/asthma?”

This one gets me the most and hits home the hardest. I have all three of the aforementioned, and most of my coworkers have one or more of them, or they have something related to them. Does it sometimes make it harder to wear a mask? Yes. Does it make it impossible? Not by any means! For the last 4 months or so, every last person in the hospital has been wearing a mask, even the president of the hospital can be seen wearing his and his eye protection on his trips around the facility. Every last one of us will wear them up to twelve or more hours each day we’re there, taking them off only to eat, drink, or when we are outside of the building.

“Surgical staff get to change their masks every fifteen minutes!”

No, they don’t, simply because they can’t. It is already INCREDIBLY time consuming for each staff member to sterilize themselves, put on their PPE, make sure everything is sterile and safe to use on the patient, and this is before surgery. Imagine walking out of the room every fifteen minutes, leaving the patient wide open and bleeding on the operating room table to go through the time consuming process of taking off the PPE (mask included), washing their hands between taking off each individual article of PPE, washing their hands again, putting PPE back on, then going back into the operating room. This is physically impossible to do without risking the death of the patient, and does not happen.

“Masks are so uncomfortable!”

Yes, they are, but aside from the previous statement of healthcare workers using them for hours on end, can you imagine how “uncomfortable” it would be for you to have to have a tube in your throat? Worse, can you imagine how “uncomfortable” it would be to know that you gave COVID to your parents, grandparents, or other at risk family members and now can’t visit them because YOU sent them to the ICU? I don’t want to imagine that, honestly, but the thought of being the reason my parents get sick and need to go to the hospital haunts my nightmares, and I’m not the only one.

And then finally, another “favorite,” if you will... “Masks do nothing to protect me!”

Maybe, but it’s been shown that masks protect OTHERS. Maybe you’ll get it from someone else if you wear a mask and they don’t, but do you really not care if you give it to someone else? Does the chance of someone else dying or losing the ability to breathe properly for the rest of their life because of you not bother you?

So there’s my piece. Do with it what you will. Shoot me down and hate me if you want, but I will say this: If you can’t or don’t want to wear a mask, then at least have the courtesy to stay at least six feet away from other people.

Thank you for reading this.