I know that there’s all kinds of fun events coming up, screenings and signings and conventions and whatnot. They will involve large numbers of people in the same space. I accept this. It is happening.
Please wear a properly-fitted N95-or-better mask if you’re going.
Please mask up if you’re going, because covid is still out there, and I cannot risk bringing it into my house.
Please mask up if you’re going, because I can’t go. I have to very, very sharply limit my time in public, because every time I go out I am risking covid, and I cannot bring covid into my 100% high-risk household. That means I have to ask myself what I’m willing to potentially hospitalize my companion of 20 years for, or what I’m willing to potentially hospitalize myself for. And as long as covid is circulating freely, I can never stop asking that question.
I can’t join my fellow fans at the Good Omens early screening, or at SDCC, or anywhere, because almost nobody is masking. Almost nobody is being covid-conscious. Could you, just for these few events? Please? The more individual humans that do it, the more other people will see them doing it and perhaps follow suit. The more that people in general are willing to wear masks, the less likely I am to catch covid with every trip outside. I might be able to go to a con again, some day. I might be able to go watch that total solar eclipse coming up next year, the one we were already making plans for back in 2017 (I’m guessing we’ll just have to wait for the next one that swings by anywhere near to us, which will be in... let me check Wikipedia... 2044). I might be able to just... go out in public without it being a huge stressor or requiring tons of preparation, swing by a coffee shop just because I feel like it, maybe even have offline friends again. Have a professional cut my hair in a way that gives me good gender feels again. (Do you know, I’ve been ready to talk to my doctor about testosterone for almost two years now? But gender dysphoria won’t put me or my housemate in the emergency room. Vastly increasing the frequency of my visits literally to a place where sick people congregate might.)
I understand that the pandemic has been declared to be over, and that long covid is obviously only something that happens to someone else, and it’s okay, as long as you’re young and/or basically healthy it’s fine!! :) :) :) :)
I’m one of the weirdo sickies. As long as you’re having your fun togetherness times unmasked, I get no fun togetherness times at all.
If you’ve ever gotten even a tiny bit of joy from a story I’ve written, could you please just wear a properly-fitted N95-or-better mask when at one of these public events? As a personal favor to me? Because, yes, I know a handful of people wearing masks a thousand miles away doesn’t make an objectively measurable difference to me. Except it would make such an incredibly huge difference. To me. If for just one single day this summer, someone would put up with some inconvenience, just to show the world that they do still care about people like me.
(This post is me, as one person of a particular fan community, reaching out in an attempt to reach others in that community who are aware of my specific existence as a human being, and who could potentially want to do me a favor. If this breaks containment then no, random person who doesn’t know who I am and doesn’t care, I am not asking a single thing of you, other than that you accept that perhaps this interwebs posting is not for you. Because it’s not.)
