Oasis of okay 

I got an email from a relative on the West Coast today. He’s a little older than me. He is now a Covid survivor.  He was, he said, sicker than he’s ever been in his life, for a long time. But he got better. Until he got sick again.

_{He doesn’t know if it’s Covid again. He just knows he got knocked flat again for a few days. And he knows he’s suffering from increasing anxiety. Every day, the number of cases around him rises.}

_{I wrote back that it felt very weird to be in the Oasis of Okay after being in the Epicenter of Awful for a couple of months. And then I thought about it and realized just how weird it feels.}

_{It feels like yesterday that we were hunkered down at home, watching the governor tally unimaginable numbers of new cases and deaths every day. Weren’t we feeling like the lepers of the USA, as the White House and the Senate Republicans blamed “blue states” for not handling the virus properly, resulting in our high infection rates?}

_{What a different a few weeks make.}

_{The last map of infection rates I saw shows New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut as the only states with downward trends. A few more states are holding steady, while the rest of the country is swamped by a tide of coronavirus.}

_{That could change tomorrow. I’m not doing a victory dance.}

_{But I have zero patience for the childish tantrums of those who won’t wear a mask, when the fact is a mask helps protect both the wearers and the people around them. Arguing it’s an infringement of their rights is a garbage argument. Go ahead. Comment away. It won’t change facts. You have a medical condition? Doctors say that’s no excuse, either. Just pick the right mask. https://www.businessinsider.com/anti-maskers-say-they-cant-wear-masks-because-medical-conditions-2020-5}

_{The vice president doesn’t want schools to base their decisions on whether to open or not on CDC guidance. The fact is, states make those decisions. And as Covid rages across this country, due to our stupidity and pigheadedness, some anti-mask governors are changing their tune. Even the occupant of the White House is now wearing a mask in public. Because no matter what he says, the facts are facts.}

_{Put a mask on it. And maybe, just maybe, we’ll be okay.}

Read more installments of Village Voices by Susan Barnett.