Explaining ‘optional’
Published Nov 10, 2022 00:02 am
|
Updated Nov 10, 2022 00:02 am
MEDIUM RARE
Jullie Y. Daza
How hard is it to make a choice between wearing a mask and not wearing one?
Having been herded like docile little lambs every which way by IATF and NTF for two years, following their every do and don’t like they were god-like cult leaders, when the time came to decide for ourselves, pick our options, we just couldn’t believe we could do it. Thus the quibbling, the hesitation.
Listen to San Juan Mayor Francis Zamora explaining what optional mask-wearing is all about and you get the drift: “No one is forcing anyone not to wear a mask. So we have the option if we feel that the indoor area we are in is safe then we have the option not to wear a mask. If we feel that it’s crowded and there’s too many people and it’s not safe then we have the option or choice to wear a mask.”
A shorter, simpler way might be to reassure one and all that they won’t be arrested for wearing a mask. Let them keep it on if it makes them feel better, healthier, for heaven’s sake.
An “informal” survey conducted by OCTA fellow Dr. Guido David showed 86 percent are for keeping their masks. As you can see, lots of pedestrians walk and wait for a ride with their masks on. Inside a mall, masking continues to be the norm, until it’s time to sit down to eat.
As with every law that comes with exceptions and exemptions, the use of masks is mandatory – not optional – in public vehicles, in clinics and hospitals, for senior citizens and persons with co-morbidities, and those considered vulnerable. One can see why some people are flummoxed: What about the threat of new, deadlier variants? If airlines insist that passengers keep their masks on throughout a 12-hour flight, what’s the message?
Among my friends, there are a few whom I call holdouts. Hourly images of a working, unmasked PBBM notwithstanding, I can count on the fingers of one hand those who dare not venture out of their homes except very rarely, and only for the most pressing reasons, the main one being covid-19, remember? “Better bored than sick,” one said to me on the phone, not face to face.
Jullie Y. Daza
How hard is it to make a choice between wearing a mask and not wearing one?
Having been herded like docile little lambs every which way by IATF and NTF for two years, following their every do and don’t like they were god-like cult leaders, when the time came to decide for ourselves, pick our options, we just couldn’t believe we could do it. Thus the quibbling, the hesitation.
Listen to San Juan Mayor Francis Zamora explaining what optional mask-wearing is all about and you get the drift: “No one is forcing anyone not to wear a mask. So we have the option if we feel that the indoor area we are in is safe then we have the option not to wear a mask. If we feel that it’s crowded and there’s too many people and it’s not safe then we have the option or choice to wear a mask.”
A shorter, simpler way might be to reassure one and all that they won’t be arrested for wearing a mask. Let them keep it on if it makes them feel better, healthier, for heaven’s sake.
An “informal” survey conducted by OCTA fellow Dr. Guido David showed 86 percent are for keeping their masks. As you can see, lots of pedestrians walk and wait for a ride with their masks on. Inside a mall, masking continues to be the norm, until it’s time to sit down to eat.
As with every law that comes with exceptions and exemptions, the use of masks is mandatory – not optional – in public vehicles, in clinics and hospitals, for senior citizens and persons with co-morbidities, and those considered vulnerable. One can see why some people are flummoxed: What about the threat of new, deadlier variants? If airlines insist that passengers keep their masks on throughout a 12-hour flight, what’s the message?
Among my friends, there are a few whom I call holdouts. Hourly images of a working, unmasked PBBM notwithstanding, I can count on the fingers of one hand those who dare not venture out of their homes except very rarely, and only for the most pressing reasons, the main one being covid-19, remember? “Better bored than sick,” one said to me on the phone, not face to face.