By Heather Molans, Sedona Resident
(January 6, 2021)
I had been isolating since March due to asthma, an immune challenge, and the risks someone 77 years old faces when they develop Covid 19
I was in charge of a committee that annually prepares blessing bags for homeless veterans. All of the planning was done by phone. The items were delivered to my doorstep by contactless delivery. I stuffed 50 bags with items.
My husband and I went to a veteran’s facility in Cottonwood to deliver the bags the day before Veterans Day. As I opened the door of the post, I juggled the large box and pushed my sunglasses up to the top of my head. As I did so, my mask popped off my ear. I couldn’t put it in place because I had nowhere to rest the box.
We thought we would just be dealing with the quartermaster. When we opened the door, we discovered 50 or 60 members of a private club that had rented the facility and were enjoying their annual Thanksgiving meeting. Not one person wore a mask. We were only there about 5 minutes, but that’s all it took.
Three days later I was sick. A Covid test was positive. There was no doubt that I became infected when I made my delivery. I hadn’t been anywhere else.
I don’t remember much about the month of November, except for the terrible pains in my body, the severe upper respiratory problems, and the debilitating fatigue. I was so weak that I was injured in a fall.
Medical professionals advise us to wear masks and not meet in groups larger than ten. An unsuspecting person shouldn’t have to suffer for an ill-conceived notion of freedom. Please love your neighbor and wear masks.
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12 Comments
Heather,
I am so sorry to hear about your ordeal knowing it could have been avoided. I even feel gatherings of ten are too many when seeing the spikes after Thanksgiving and Christmas travel/gatherings. Wearing a mask is such a simple request… it has been far easier than when we were all required to wear seat belts for the first time, and that soon became an easy habit and saved so many lives.
Understandably, we all want to get back to normal: see our kids in school; return to our jobs; get a hug from our friends; enjoy eating out again… so we need to listen to what the health experts have told us time and again to make it happen sooner. I implore everyone to honor your neighbors and wear your masks out of kindness and respect.
Sandy
Beautifully articulated!
Masks do not protect you from COVID and it’s likely that you picked up the virus the same way you pick up all viruses – by touching something. Masks provide a false sense of security and in that way do more harm than good.
However, since you are writing about this, it sure looks like you survived. There’s no reason to limit gatherings, mask up or take an untested, unsafe vaccine when there’s a 99.8% survival rate.
Calm down.
REALLY? How It Spreads: Both the Regular Flu and COVID-19 are spread in similar ways. COVID is 10times smaller. Droplets of any virus particles from any person with active virus can transmit the virus to other people nearby. The smallest particles may linger in the air, (airborne transmission) and another person can inhale them and become infected. Ever walked10-20 feet behind someone smoking? If you can smell it and that was COVID virus floating on the air – YOU have been exposed. The more particles you breathe in or collect from exposure (as happens during unmasked large group gatherings even outdoors) the greater likelihood of getting a big concentration of the virus that overloads your immune system to fight it off. People infected with the coronavirus or the flu do not realize they are sick for several days when they unknowingly spread the disease to others. If others have compromised immune responses, they can get very sick very fast and die. 350,000 so far and Arizona as a national hotspot. People can also touch a surface (contact transmission) with viruses on it, and then transfer the germs to themselves by touching their face or eyes.
“Masks keep YOUR virus in and MY virus out. Small gathering limits the concentration of exposure”. If you benefit from living in a community with (roads, stores, churches, services, fire/police) you are also (automatically) responsible for following the rules of what protects that community and ALL the people in it. The failure to understand WHY large indoor gathering, and WEARING a mask after all this time is just selfish, shortsighted, and risks other’s lives. Step-Up, we all have responsibilities.
Mary Helsaple,
Thank you for having the patience to take on the ignorance, or is it stupidity? of what Archie Mendez said.
Surgeons wear masks to keep from spreading anything they might be carrying to a vulnerable patient, so yes, masks protect others more than the wearer.
Heather Molans, as the joke goes, “No good deed shall go unpunished.” I’m sorry you, and possibly your husband also, from the self-centered egos of people who once offered their lives for our freedoms. I guess they think freedom has become free.
Thank you, Mary. That was my understanding as well.
People like you will stubbornly continue to spread this disease.
Your theory of my having touched something doesn’t hold up in view of my only having bumped the door open with my butt and I simply dropped the box and left. I washed my clothing when I got home.
I had been isolating since March, so I went no where else. But there I was, in a closed up room with 50 or 60 mask free people.
Masks have been worn by hospital staff for years and years with no ill effects.
It doesn’t take much to be considerate of others. I guess it takes a little less to be inconsiderate and show the world that you only think of yourself. That’s the message you present to the world. It isn’t macho or representing freedom to those of us in society that are frail. It is a choice to be unkind.
People like you will stubbornly continue to spread this disease.
Your theory of my having touched something doesn’t hold up in view of my only having bumped the door open with my butt and I simply dropped the box and left. I washed my clothing when I got home.
I had been isolating since March, so I went no where else. But there I was, in a closed up room with 50 or 60 mask free people.
Masks have been worn by hospital staff for years and years with no ill effects.
It doesn’t take much to be considerate of others. I guess it takes a little less to be inconsiderate and show the world that you only think of yourself. That’s the message you present to the world. It isn’t macho or representing freedom to those of us in society that are frail. It is a choice to be unkind.
Thanks to Heather and Sandy we Sedona .Biz readers know intelligence exists in this media.
It’s amazing how utterly stupid contributors still remain.
Steady as it goes.
Again thanks to you two and the Biz staff for printing your good words.
John
Hey , guys, Archie Mendez , is no authority on anything so just ignore him .
John
Thank You, John!
I’m sure I will be deemed ignorant and inconsiderate but this whole lock down has been a sham to control the American public. I am 65 years old and am limited in remaining years and do not and have not turned my life over to fear of covid. My wife and I have flown cross country twice and took proper precautions and it was well worth it. We eat out four or five nights a week and are not required to wear masks. We attend church and follow the mask rules there. That being said we both got covid and tested immediately and received the covid infusion as soon as we were diagnosed. We each experience about 12 hours of severe symptoms after the infusion as was expected and were fine after that. The biggest issue with spread is irresponsible folks who get sick and do nothing. Most non elderly people that end up in the hospital are the folks that are in denial and are out spreading covid in public and getting others sick. Masks or no masks you can’t fight stupid.