The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
Emily Post please guide us
When I say that I am confused by the new pandemic-era mask etiquette there is no need to take my word for it. If the opportunity presents itself, you can simply ask the woman I ran into on the street the other day, a doctor working directly with COVID patients, which added to my case of the yips.
As we exchanged greetings, I pulled out my mask — denim, part of a three-pack from Old Navy — and, fumblingly, donned it. Fearing that I was too close for either of us, I stepped back. Having trouble being heard, I pulled the fabric down below my chin.
Then, for no obvious reason I lurched forward again, pulling the mask up at the same time, as if I was about to pull out a Saturday Night Special and say gimme yer wallet.
“You’re well then,” the woman said, fearing perhaps that I was not, while edging away.
My memory is that my mask hung goofily from one ear as I stood there, although that could just be a psychic image of the confusion I feel now that mask-wearing is such a part of our lives.
The truth is that I’ve always done what Dr. Strang said when indoors, or near groups of others.
That was easy in rural Nova Scotia where I spent lockdowns one and two. But we are waiting out the latest internment in the city, which is ground zero in the third wave of the pandemic, and we are into it now, no matter what the addled anti-maskers and Covid-is-just-the-flubelievers think.
So, the mask is always with me, usually looped around my ears. I pull it down when the sidewalk before me is clear. When somebody approaches, I pull it up over my nose, and leave it there if I see more humanity behind them.
No one has suggested this was the way to go. I just landed on this approach because it seems to make sense and serves as a communal act of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. Besides, it is what I see others doing.
Beyond that, though, the etiquette is baffling. Am I supposed to give others a wide berth on the sidewalk? Does the anonymity of the mask mean, in the spirit of us all being in this together, that, even if I don’t feel like it, I must mumble a “good morning” or at least give a perceptible nod to complete strangers? Is it cool to pin a sign to my lapel telling the world the number of days since my most recent negative COVID test? Or perhaps to create a badge like the ones I used to get at cubs, denoting exactly what vaccine I’m getting?
My question, which could grace the front of a T-shirt, is where is Emily Post when we need her the most — because, although it will be a great day when I am fully vaccinated, my befuddlement over how to act is sure to persist.
A couple of weeks ago, federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu said that Canadians will “shortly” receive federal guidance around what they can, and can’t safely do after their first and second COVID-19 vaccination shots.
That means that for now we are lagging behind the United States, where the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention says the fully vaccinated can gather indoors without wearing masks or social distancing, and people who have had their full vaccine dosage can go mask-less outdoors unless in a big group of people. The coronavirus-protected in the United States are being urged to wear masks at indoor public settings, as well as when gathering indoors with those who are not fully vaccinated. So, I have questions.
I’m assuming, vaccine-ornot, the handshake is gone as a greeting, likewise the man hug, and La Bise, as the French call the double cheek kiss.
Is it OK, though, when getting together with folks, to ask who else has had their complete dosage? (An expert interviewed by the CBC the other day said yes.)
I am not one who relishes the spotlight, yet I must still ask if would it be viewed as ham-handed, when walking down the street, to sport a miniature light that flashes red to indicate my fully vaccinated status when that day comes?
I await guidance on this matter, even if no one has ever called me couth and I do know myself: when that moment arrives, I may not be able to contain myself. Declasse or not, only a flamboyant gesture will do.