PSA: "Starting to feel better" does not equal "not infectious"

[sonia]

This PSA brought to you by the friend I met with outdoors, so no masks, who breathed in my face and then said he's recovering from a cold. "I'm feeling better, so I'm not infectious anymore." His voice was still raspy and it was clear his head was still full of gunk. I had a stuffed head and occasional sneezing for a week. Fortunately a week when I didn't have many in-person plans.

And also by the friend who said she had a mild sore throat a couple days before I was seeing her. When I checked in, she said she was feeling fine and a mask wasn't necessary. I had my doubts, but went along with the social pressure. Now I have a scratchy throat and raspy voice, and she has developed laryngitis. Welp. I did have a lot of in-person plans this week, but I guess I'll be canceling them.

I haven't tested positive for Covid in all this, so maybe they're "just" colds. But I still don't feel well, and they disrupt my life, since I don't want to keep passing the germs along.

I sympathize - before the start of the pandemic, my mantra used to be "I'm not sick! I'm not sick! I'm getting better! I'm getting better!" I know it's hard to communicate about illness and just stay home, but please, just stay home until you're really symptom-free, not just starting to feel better.

Comments

[sonia]

I don't know about your friends in particular. I figure part of it is the collective belief that we can control whether we get sick by choosing "good" behaviors. Admitting we're sick becomes admitting to a moral failing. Plus we get taught to just tough it out and go to school, go to work. Makes it hard to say, "I don't feel well, let's reschedule." I was really hoping the pandemic would shift that, but apparently not.

Oh, you named that tune!

[jesse_the_k]

I knew that we readily lie to ourselves about being virtuous enough to evade airborne viruses.

But admitting we're sick becomes admitting to a moral failing is indeed the logical conclusion. And how the hell do we fight back against that?

(Nestles nicely with the moral model of disability, where impairment is evidence of God's judgement.)

Re: Oh, you named that tune!

[sonia]

I don't know how we fight against that. Except I keep saying that Universal Basic Income would solve most of our problems, and then we'd have the energy to tackle whatever is left. If everyone feels safe and cared for and isn't worried about where their next meal or shelter will come from, it becomes ok to be ill, short-term or long-term.

Re: Oh, you named that tune!

[jesse_the_k]

UBI does seem like it could solve many problems, and we can certainly afford it.