|
Wearing A Mask
I am a home health aide and I recently started working with a new family. There is another aide that works there and she's been there for 3 years. I noticed that the family told me to wear my mask, but they didn't ask her to. Now, I know that she's been there longer than me, but I really don't get the logic of that. Doesn't she have to go home to her family everyday as well, and then expose this family to whoever she's been around? I mean, she doesn't live there. I have no problem wearing my mask, but I'm just confused about why she doesn't have to. Am I wrong to think this way? It's been two weeks and I'm still wearing my mask while she is not. Thanks for the advice
[ ]
Want to answer more questions in the Health & Fitness category?
Maybe give some free advice about: Health?
It is a really good idea to insist that everyone wears a mask when you are indoors together, especially when your work means a 2 metre distance cannot be observed. If we take the case where one person is covid-positive and shedding and not wearing a mask then anything more than 15 minutes togetehr virtually guarantees any uniinfected person will contract the virus, unless they have had it and have antibodies. Where the infected person is masked, this reduces the probability, since masks will block much of their exhaled moisture which contains the virus. We have seen this in every hospital, pre-covid. The surgeons are masked not to protect themselves but to keep the patient's open body from bacterial or viral infection. This is how IIR and KN59 surgical masks work. Back to our scenario, if infected and uninfected alike all wear masks the likelihood of spreading the virus is very greatly reduced. The uninfected person alone wearing a mask should NOT be taken as a wildcard, making the wearer safe in any environment. Surgical masks were never really meant to work like this, as we have discussed. And fabric 'face coverings' certainly do not. This is the 'false sense of security' you may have heard mentioned regarding face masks. We all have to wear them if they are going to protect us. I would consider making this an essential requirement, or you refuse to work. You are what we call a 'front-line worker' in the UK. Stay safe.
]
I used to do care giving so thats close to the same thing. When I was sent on new assignments, there was just the one person, not two on site. But when you have been with a person for a long time, or over time, you get closer and begin to see them as friends or feel like family...so I get that. But in light of Covid, you can catch Covid from family too. Its not like she lives there and never leaves the place. this is a job, just the same as anyone else who is employed, and all employees of any stores, or services that I have come into contact with, even the parcel delivery or pizza delivery people are all wearing masks, whether its a person coming to your door, working in an office with others or going to any established business, everyone is wearing a mask. The fact they believe its safe for her to not wear one is distorted thinking. Dont let others distorted beliefs cause you to become vulnerable. Even if they change their minds at some point and say you can take it off, DONT.
I think they came to this situation perhaps because the family themselves were house bound, even in normal times. I went to plenty of homes where the person or couple there, never left their house and a relative did the shopping for their food because it was too much of a hardship for them to leave. Now if it was just those people never leaving the house, they can't catch anything from each other. However a person from outside, coming in as their job, have had contact with people outside that house. You have contact with your own family or a partner you live with and don't wear masks, right. Every person I know doesn't wear a mask in their car if only them, and don't wear at home if only other people in the house are those who live there. My husband and I are semi retired and retired both. So we dont tend to be going in different circles, like he's not away at a job and I am not hanging with friends who aren't wearing masks. Even my adult daughter came to pick me up and asked me to wear a mask in her car and because we couldnt be 6 feet apart, have windows down unless it was bad weather once and I had to sit in the back seat when it was just her and I. We are family but we do not live in the same home together so theres always a chance one of us could have been exposed.
Also, the mask doesn't prevent you 100% from getting covid, it only changes how far your breath can travel away from your face and traps some of the droplets. I watched a special camera image that showed the air, like the fog we see when breathing in really cold weather. Without the mask, it traveled many feet. With a mask, it only swirled out the sides of mask and stayed close to the face. So even wearing a mask while the others do not, there is still a small chance of you catching something, whether its people you work with, at a job, or friends and strangers who are not wearing a mask.
So don't look at this as an unfair privilege. Look at it as them taking risks that likely are not good for them if they have underlying health issues already.
]
What this boils down to is that they have been around her every day for 3 years and she is essentially part of an established "bubble" if you will. They don't believe that they can get COVID-19 off of her as a result of always being around her.
You, on the other hand are new and they don't know your activities or who you are in contact with and are being very careful. They think because you are new that you need to wear the mask and not her. The only other reason would be that she has a breathing or other medical problem making wearing a mask difficult.
If you have been asked to wear a mask do so. It won't kill you. It may save you from COVID or inadvertently giving it while asymptomatic. It's protection and just cloth. It's being selfless and that's how you have to approach it whether someone else wears one or not. Batman wears a mask. Masks are cool.
I wouldn't worry about this at all but continue to wear your mask to reman employed and until they say something about you no longer needing it. They're requiring it because they don't you plain and simple and see a risk of COVID. They also may have looked at your age and made assumptions too. The other person which you haven't told us may be a lot older. It's assumed that young people don't take COVID or masks or restrictions seriously. If you do it's a bit of an anomaly and that's what they worry over hence the mask.
]
More Questions: |