I wanted to tell you a story about my daughter, Amanda.
She has been a respiratory therapist for UPMC for the last 18 years, and 2020 has proved to be her most difficult.
Not because of COVID-19 and her essential frontline view of this coronavirus pandemic. Surprising, huh? This virus attacks the ability to breathe, and her job entails giving her patients every breath they have left. One likely thinks she heads to each shift with fear in her heart and panic in her brain.
But no, that’s not it.
What instigates Amanda’s agitation is politics, and that’s because she’s not real sure how wearing a mask became a national debate and causedeven more division in this allegedly united nation. Families have fought over it, and friendships have ended after arguments over the CDC information, how positive cases are counted, and the lack of information shared by county health departments.
“Have the people refusing to wear them even been inside a hospital? Have they seen the masks that we wear to protect people who are already sick and don’t need our cold?”
Safe Parents, Too
Maybe it’s because most of us didn’t know what PPE was or because we’ve always walked the world without fear of a deadly disease. Perhaps some believe they will survive if infected because of the current rate of fatalities, or they could suspect a conspiracy of some sort that involves, yes, politics on state and federal levels.
“But I’ve seen people my age die from this s#*&. I know some people think this is a hoax, but it’s not a hoax. It sucks for the people who have to be in the hospital. They have a tough time.”
Since late-March, many medical workers in the United States have become infected with Covid-19, and some have passed away, too. Those statistics, of course, make her parents necessarily nervous and concerned for their daughter’s safety, but she reassures us.
“In the beginning, I was really scared, but it’s gone back to being about helping people. We know how to go about it now, and I’m going to be OK,” she tells us. “But wear a mask when you’re around other people. Please.”
She prefers her parents to be safe, too.
