I was thinking about this the other day, and then
yesterday at the local convenience store where I got into a discussion with the
cashier about how much healthier we’ve been through the pandemic. We were talking
about not only how many fewer colds and coughs we’ve had, but about how, if we
do get them, they’re gone in a day or so, instead of the weeks and even up to a
month they could last prior to the pandemic. I first noticed this when I
started working from home instead of in the office. I had a coworker who was
always sick. I mean, always. She might get better for a day or two, but that was
it. Sure enough, she’d be coughing and sneezing again.
This person wasn’t one to keep her germs to herself,
either. She coughed into the open air. She coughed and sneezed while standing
over the general use copier. She wouldn’t wipe it down afterwards. She was a hugger.
She liked to greet friends with a hug. Nothing wrong with that, except she’d do
it when she was sick, too. It was as though she’d been sick for so long that
she’d come to think of it as a state of being and forgot how to keep her germs
to herself.
There was the time at the grocery store, prior to
the pandemic, when I was at the deli counter waiting in line to get a sandwich.
Along comes a woman with her late-teens daughter sitting, wrapped up in a blanket,
in the cargo section of the grocery cart. She pulls up right next to me. And I
do mean right next to me. Mom explains how her daughter is sick, but they
wanted something from the deli, but of course daughter has to come along to
pick up what she wants, so she brings her in the store.
She smiles while she says this and keeps smiling
even as I’m trying to sidle away from them without losing my place at the
counter. It probably took the pandemic to make her understand the horror of
bringing her sick daughter into the store and exposing everyone there. Doing that
now would’ve brought a Mt. St. Helen’s type explosive down on their heads about
exposing others to disease. I still see the smiling faces on both women.
Totally clueless to anyone else’s health.
I’m hoping that even after the pandemic has passed, or
things have at least calmed down a bit, the grocery stores keep their new
practice of individually wrapping the baked goods. I kind of like picking out a
fritter or doughnut knowing that the only other person who touched it was the
deli employee who has to comply with health standards set by the store and the
government. At least this way if I do get sick, I can go straight to the store.
Before, you never knew who’d touched something before you bought it. More than
once I remember watching kids reaching into the cookie display and casually
pulling out cookies with their bare hands. Probably unwashed bare hands. Who
knew what else those hands were used for – wiping their noses, among other
things, probably?
After I started working from home, I noticed several
times that I got colds after grocery shopping. I started using the sterile
cleanings pads on the cart when I came through the door. It helped cut down on
that.
The convenience store attendant was telling me of a
person who came through and told her they had strep. I said, yeah, I could
understand the person needing to pick up a few things, but I can see her point
too – send someone else into the store for you. Or wear a mask and gloves.
Nowadays, if you’re sick, you can pre-order your soups and whatever else you
need and have it brought out to your car. No need to infect everyone else.
.
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