While a country-wide mandate and enforcing the law when it comes to the recent protests and riots across the US could have potentially curbed the spread of the coronavirus, not many states have acted accordingly.
Research has shown that social distancing in addition to wearing masks can greatly reduce the risk of spreading the killer virus. And a country-wide mandate could have had a positive effect when it comes to this.
But not every state has the ability to enforce a mask mandate. For instance, the governor of California left local governments to deal with enforcements and a number of sheriffs’ departments said it inconsiderate to penalize people who do not abide.
KHN reports that the authorities’ carelessness on the matter is now pushing some medical workers to make personal appeals to the people.
Amy Arlund, 45, who is a nurse at the COVID-19 branch at the Kaiser Permanente Fresno Medical Center, is one of the people who pleaded with her family and friends about the crucial importance of PPE during this crisis after the Fresno County Sheriff-Coroner’s Office announced it didn’t have the resources to enforce the mandate.
The mother of one made a social media post, writing:
“I am an ICU nurse here in Fresno. I work in a designated Covid unit. I am imploring every resident of Fresno County to wear a mask at all times. Do it for me, because I don’t have enough PPE to protect myself while I give hands-on nursing care to those who are dying from this virus. Wear it because we don’t have enough ICU beds here in the Central Valley to take care of everyone. Survival from ICU hospitalization depends on whether or not there are enough nurses present to do the life-saving work around the clock that saves lives.
If I’m wrong, you wore a silly mask and you didn’t like it. If I’m right and you don’t wear a mask, you better pray that all the nurses aren’t already out sick or dead because people chose not to wear a mask. Please tell me my life is worth a LITTLE of your discomfort?”, the post read.
I am an ICU nurse here in Fresno. I work in a designated Covid unit. I am imploring every resident of Fresno County…
Posted by Amy Arlund on Tuesday, June 23, 2020
In an interview with KHN, Amy shared that since her job is highly risky, she currently lives in a “zone” of her own home that no other person except her is allowed to enter.
She even has limited contact with her 9-year-old child by staying three-feet apart, with both of them wearing masks.
Amy explained that anti-mask comments are extremely upsetting to her as she struggles with the situation she’s in on a daily basis. She remembered an ill-mannered interaction her husband had with a local woman who approached him and told him he looked “ridiculous” in the N95 mask he had on.
“It’s like mask-shaming, and we’re shaming in the wrong direction,” Amy said. “He does it to protect you, you cranky hag!”
In Port Charlotte, Florida, Fawcett Memorial Hospital nurse Cynthia Butler, 62, had a similar story to share, as per FOX4.
She talked about a conversation she had with a young man at a pet shop registry where she asked him why he was not wearing a protective mask.
“His tone was more like, this whole mask thing is ridiculous,” she recalled.
Cynthia decided not to tell him that she had recently recovered from the virus she contracted at work even though the conversation hurt her deeply.
“They may think you’re stepping on their rights,” she said, explaining why she doesn’t normally lecture people who are not wearning masks. “It’s not anything I want to get shot over.”
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