I received the following comment today from a LouisianaVoice reader who calls herself Ananna:
I will not get the vaccine. I am a 58-year-old female and am very healthy. I am responsible for my own health only; I am not responsible for anybody else’s health. I wear the mask only if a store manager asks me to. Some stores don’t bother me if I don’t mask up. Even the mask package says the mask will not prevent the spread of coronavirus. I do not judge others if they choose to wear a mask and if others judge me when I don’t wear a mask, well that’s fine too. Asymptomatic transmission is rare according to the WHO. My husband and I adopted a healthy lifestyle years ago and started exercising and eating healthy. In addition, we take daily Vitamin D3, Zinc and Vitamin C. This is how we choose to fight this virus and others. We know we will survive if we do catch it.
Normally, I wouldn’t take the trouble to single out one reader’s comments as the basis for a new post. In this case, I make an exception.
So, how best to respond in the most delicate and succinct way possible while remaining sensitive to her feelings?
I’ll try this way:
Lady, you’re not only a damned fool, but you’re also selfish, arrogant and narrow-minded, not to mention just plain belligerent.
Now I’m not judging, mind you, just stating a pretty obvious fact and that is that you have no medical background, do not trust science and you probably watch Fox and miss Donald Trump’s tweets.
So what if you’re healthy? A lot of “healthy” people have died from coronavirus – some most likely healthier than you at age 58. The fact is, you are not immune, not invincible unless you wear a cape and fight crime. Claiming good health as justification for not wearing a mask is about as silly as it gets.
Sorry, lady, but you are incorrect in avowing that you are responsible only for your own health and no one else’s. That is inconsiderate and grossly ignorant. If you have any ailment, be it the flu, a common cold, Covid, or Ebola and you, maskless, sneeze on me and infect me, you damn-well are responsible. Where the hell do you come off thinking you get a pass on that?
I’m not sure what mask package you read but mine says simply that the mask is not a medical-grade device. That does not mean that it doesn’t help prevent the spread of infection of any description, including coronavirus. You think surgeons and nurses wear masks in OR for the fun of it? There’s a reason – to prevent infection.
Here are a few links about masks for you to read – not that I think for a minute you’ll take the trouble to do so:
PolitiFact | No, a CDC-WHO study does not prove that masks do not prevent spread of COVID-19
COVID-19: Considerations for Wearing Masks | CDC
Asymptomatic transmission may indeed be rare but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t occur.
Congratulations on your “healthy lifestyle.” Josh Fiske is a urologist from New Jersey who jogged five miles a day as of last March. A week later he was fighting for his life as Covid sapped his energy and his oxygen levels plummeted.
Von Miller is a linebacker for the Denver Broncos who was brought down by Covid. His take on his own healthy lifestyle? “No matter how great of shape you are in physically, no matter what your age is, you’re not immune from things like this.”
Andrew Boselli, 22, an offensive lineman at Florida State says, “I was young and healthy. I play Division One football and I’ve been training my butt off all winter and spring. I thought I had no worries. IU wasn’t going to get it.” In March, he fell ill. He felt sluggish and had shortness of breath as his temperature shot to 104. “It was the sickest I’ve ever felt,” he said.
They were lucky. They survived. Here are a few others:
https://www.city-journal.org/covid-story-sports-media-wont-tell
A telling sentence from the last link above said, “Professional athletes are among the healthiest and best-cared for people on the planet, with few of the health problems that produce the worst outcomes from the disease.”
Yet they contracted the virus. Fortunately, they survived but the question of whether or not they really recovered has yet to be answered.
Many didn’t survive. Here is a list of athletes who died from coronavirus:
So, Ananna, you continue with your exercising and health diet, supplemented by Vitamin D2, Zinc and Vitamin C. But as for your certainty that you’ll survive if you do catch Covid? That’s a risk I wouldn’t be willing to take.
As for me, you’ll just have excuse me if I judge you just a little.
Louisiana Voice 
Excellent response, Tom. However, you must consider the obvious fact that too many people in this state, country, and world dismiss facts as “Fake News,” choosing to invent their own reality with a protective filter that allows only information consistent with their “beliefs” to enter. Therefore, you are not likely to have had any effect on the author of the note. Nor will she ever accept the selfishness of her position. Thanks for trying, though.
P. S. And let’s not forget the garbage out there on the vaccines:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/02/16/covid-vaccine-misinformation-evangelical-mark-beast/?MessageRunDetailID=4395970519&PostID=25720300&utm_medium=email&utm_source=rasa_io
I’ll never understand how seemingly intelligent people can be so stupid!
Since :Ananna” declares that she is NOT responsible for other folks in any way….wonder how she will feel if she happens to catch Covid from someone else and it really, really is bad for her and/or her husband? Would she still feel that we are not responsible and affected by what others do or don’t do? It is so depressing to learn about such arrogant, selfishness….whatever happened to the religious teachings “If my eye offends someone, I will pluck it out!’ or “Love thy neighbor as you love yourself?” or something like this. I know….this is a whole other can of worms. When I see someone without a mask, I just assume that they have Covid and avoid them like they had the plague. Good grief! Thank you for answering her appropriately!
Tom, thanks for this response. I will use it with those inconsiderate and ignorant buffoons’ I hear and see taking the same position as Ananna. Well, actually I’ll probably just keep my mouth shut and curse them under my breath.
I don’t understand how people can argue against the inconvenience or annoyance of wearing a cheap mask once in a while when out in public, but expect females to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term. That is significantly more expensive and onerous on a woman than wearing a $.50 paper mask every so often.
“I am responsible for my own health only; I am not responsible for anybody else’s health.”
That thoughtless statement completely dismisses the benefits we all receive from public health measures. From 1900 to 1999 American life expectancy increased 29 years largely due to reductions in infectious diseases as the result of public health measures. Those measures – clean drinking water regulations, sewerage processing systems, vaccination programs (diphtheria, tetanus, poliomyelitis, smallpox, measles, mumps, rubella, etc.) saved countless lives.
To those claiming that face covering requirements are a violation of their personal liberty, I ask this question. Why aren’t you dumping your raw sewerage out on the street? Isn’t the government requirement to tie your house into a sewer processing system or install a septic tank also a violation of your personal liberty?
No individual’s health can be completely separated from the health of their community. We share the same water, air, and microorganisms. She may think that she is not responsible for anybody else’s health, but unless she lives alone on a desert island it is not true. In matters of public health, we are all responsible for each other. That’s why it’s called public.
Your response is probably the best I’ve heard yet. We’ve spent more than 100 years developing a scientific and medical system to combat this pandemic, but some people think they have the education, background or experience to refute that system based on little more than the garbage circulating on social media… and, of course, the lies they get from a billionaire con-man.
Great article! Ananna is bananas, feel compassion for her husband, bet he is a__________, and part of the trumpite worshippers. Egomaniacs,(supreme leader), wonder what they do for fun??? Check out Bloomberg news article on Venzuwalay and the failure of socialism and what Trump is doing to help Maduro thanks ron thompson
Is it just me, or does this commenter sound more than a little like Zoe? :-0
Well, Zoe claims to be a nurse so I would certainly hope she knows better than to spout such nonsense. But then again…
Lol, well Zoe made a lot of claims and predictions that turned out to be less than true. I’d be surprised if she was actually who she portrayed herself as.
And, great article, by the way. I didn’t answer the original comment because I figured you would skewer it, lol. Perhaps, once we’ve gotten our vaccinations, we can meet up for one of those veteran’s breakfasts we used to have back before the pandemic.
If Ananna does get COVID and die, I call dibs on her Kitchen Aid mixer