And if there’s one person who could capture that, it would be Chuck Wendig.

Wendig has a dark description of a recent trip to the doctor’s office when he had a respiratory virus (not COVID). The whole thing is worth a read, but this, for me, was the jaw dropping moment (boldface mine):

“You don’t have to wear that.”

That, meaning, presumably, my mask.

(Better that than, say, my pants. “You don’t have to wear those dungarees,” he says, a coy twinkle in his once-dead eyes.)

I sigh, and explain, well, there’s a lot of sickness going around, and also, I am presently sick.

When I say this, he visibly flinches and asks, with serious panic:

“Do you have COVID?”

And I need you to understand here that in that exact moment I proved undeniably that I have a superpower, and that superpower is unshakeable willpower. Because I really, really wanted to take my mask off and then answer, confidently, “Oh, yeah, it’s COVID.” Just before coughing.

I did not do this, thus confirming I am a good person.

But I mean, what the fuck, they don’t ask before I get there if I had COVID. They don’t supply tests. They just gleefully tell me to take off my mask. I absolutely could’ve had COVID. And given how glibly the entire office treated the situation, I’d think they actually don’t care very much about COVID — or any other illness! — at all.

(Which is why I mask there!)

While his post is also about the lack of care by the medical system, the attitudes about masking are so fucked up in the U.S. right now. If someone comes into a medical facility with obvious symptoms of a respiratory virus, it should be assumed that it’s not ‘just a cold.’ At the very least, patients with noticeable symptoms shouldn’t be encouraged to not mask.

We have completely lost our minds when it comes to basic public hygiene.