DOCTOR: The bad news is your grandfather has COVID. The good news is with current treatment, his odds of surviving are 99%. He’s a fit 83, and might have another 3-4 years.
FAMILY: Those are good odds. Thank you.
STATE GOVERNMENT: We can actually improve those odds with some help.
FAMILY: Okay, go on.
STATE: This woman is hard of hearing. We’re all going to cover our faces and she won’t be able to read lips.
FAMILY: That’s inconvenient, sounds even problematic.
STATE: These two people are asthmatics. We’re going to cover their faces up and restrict their breathing several hours a day. It won’t be quite as bad as COPD.
FAMILY: What? But that’s going to cause health problems for them. That’s not really a fair trade.
STATE: This woman was raped as a child with a cloth over her face. We’re going to wrap her face up. This will terrify her into PTSD, but, it will reduce her exhalations. Also, seeing our faces wrapped up will trigger her, too. But it’s for the greater good.
FAMILY: Are you fucking kidding me? That’s monstrous.
STATE: These children will also have their faces wrapped up. They’ll have trouble learning how facial expressions work and how to interact with people, during a critical developmental stage. But it may reduce the viral spread.
FAMILY: Jesus. They’re children.
STATE: We’re also going to shut this business down and bankrupt an entire family. It will mean people can’t gather in groups as easily, though.
FAMILY: Why? What kind of improvement are we talking about here?
STATE: We can possibly make a 2% improvement over the 99%, so 99.02% survival.
FAMILY: That’s so tiny, though. Does it really matter?
DOCTOR: It might save his life.
FAMILY: I guess we can try it, if they all consent.
GOVERNOR: Why would we ask their permission?
INFORMED FAMILY: Holy fuck, you’re a complete sicko! Forget it. We don't want to do that.
BRANCH COVIDIANS: CONGRATULATIONS! YOU JUST KILLED GRANDPA!
Moral grandparent: I’ll take my chances. Please do what’s right for the kids.
~~~
The asthmatics, rape survivor, hearing impaired, and small kids is _MY_ family. The businesses are hundreds of thousands of family incomes (not “profits” in the corporate sense. And even those employ people who are now laid off).
When you wail about being “mask shamed,”
When you ableist condescend that, “There’s no one who can’t wear a mask, it’s just a scrap of cloth,”
When you call the rape survivor “princess” and “snowflake” and say, “We’re going to need to see some documentation” and “maybe you should wear some kind of badge so we know this is real,”
When you jerk off that a business that feeds a family (or a lot of families) is putting “profit over people,”
You are a piece of shit.
Thanks for wearing a fashionable face panty, though. It makes you easy to identify.
