Readers Respond: What To Say If Someone Asks Why You’re Wearing A Mask

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17 Сен 2021, 22:55

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Coronavirus FAQs: A Vaccinated Person’s Guide To COVID Exposure And Elevator Etiquette

Be honest about your own personal reasons

If somebody asks, I tell them the truth. I have cancer, I’m currently on chemo, I have no immune system and I’m protecting myself not only from COVID but a whole bunch of other things, too. Shuts them right up.

Two men have called me a sheep twice for wearing a mask. Since I was old enough to be both their grandmother, I asked them sweetly if I could have two minutes to explain. Both said yes. I think they both were ready for a fight, but they didn’t get one. The first time it happened, after I got finished, the young man who asked why I was wearing a mask bought my gas for me. The second time, the young man in the pickup mumbled something along the lines of «I’m sorry» and couldn’t get away from me fast enough. — Joyce Ridner

Say it’s because you don’t like being sick

My 9-year-old son likes to answer: «Because I hate being sick.» If we are around people without masks, we leave the situation. In an elevator I would get off and take the next one or take the stairs.

We are at risk and my kids are too young to be vaccinated so they have figured out how to protect themselves. — Jennifer Crutcher

Don’t respond at all

Some guy came into the entrance of the grocery store and started shouting in people’s faces, «Why are you wearing masks?» and asking us where it says in the Bible you have to wear a mask.

A woman made the mistake of trying to speak to him reasonably. He started screaming in her face until [he was] escorted out of the store. There’s no point in conversing with someone who is clearly looking to fight. — Melanie Zeien Bean

Keep in mind, it may be generational

I’m from a different generation. The one that had friends who got polio, smallpox, mumps and measles, for example. The one that had classmates in iron lungs. The generation that served in the military and got more than a dozen shots before getting sent somewhere nasty to do things unthinkable. So getting this vaccine and wearing a mask are trifles. – Tony Ludlow

Say it’s for your protection

What I have said when others ask why I am wearing a mask: 1) To respect you. 2) Out of an abundance of caution, as my husband has to work with intubated and end-of-life COVID patients in the ICU. 3) I’ve never had COVID, been exposed or ever had to be tested, so it seems to be working for me and my family. — Jill Melendez