Gone are the days

Gone are the days when someone could innocently cough, sneeze or sniffle in public without being regarded with suspicion, fright or disgust. Those basic, natural body functions are generally no longer considered acceptable.

Sometimes on social media I see posts written about people in establishments removing their masks to sneeze or cough. Comments under those posts generally express disgust, anger, frustration, or hope that the writer of the post was able to escape from the potentially contaminated scene as swiftly as possible. And the gold medal goes to...

I asked a few people about their current reaction to the act of sneezing/coughing in public, either as "offender" or "victim."

Person A: "I definitely feel differently about it. Ashamed maybe? I’ve uncomfortably stifled a few coughs. In front of my closest friends I might even say ‘Don’t worry. It’s not covid!’...but who can say at any given moment if it is or isn’t?"

Person B: “I think everyone ‘fraid to cough and sneeze and ‘fraid of others who cough and sneeze. Imagine on an aeroplane or bus! Riot!"

Person C: "I’m very conscious that people might think I’m infected. One time on the ferry some food went down the wrong way. I was coughing my guts out and automatically removed my mask, though looking away from everyone. The attendant came over very concerned and my sister explained why I was coughing. I was very embarrassed."

Person D: "To be honest, in these strange times I feel differently about everything. But I don’t feel differently about people coughing or sneezing in public or otherwise. I feel differently about other people’s reactions to these things. In my opinion people have taken this thing and run with it in all kinds of crazy directions."

Gone are the days when people who have not seen each other in a long time greet each other with a warm “Hello!” or “Good to see you!” or “Long time no see!”

Instead, a commonly heard greeting is: “Yuh vaccinated?”

If the person answers in the affirmative, the question that likely follows is: “One jab or two?”

Some people don’t need to be asked those questions; the answer is emblazoned across their "Fully vaccinated" T-shirts or stamped as circular "Fully-Vaccinated" frames around their social-media profile pictures.

Some people simply say: "I believe in my immune system and keeping it strong."

Some, seeing the choice to vaccinate or not as a private matter, consider such questions invasive, quite like "Did you have a bowel movement today? How many? One or two?”

The answer in such cases may be silence, something vague and abstract or, the more direct: "None of your business."

The other day, as I waited for the veterinarian to come and give seven rescue pups the first of their three vaccines, I found myself consciously choosing to say "injections" or "shots," simply because the word "vaccine" has become so synonymous with the covid "vax" that it felt inaccurate to associate it with what the pups were to receive.

Gone are the days when the word "vaccine" simply meant that, and could be applicable to yellow fever, malaria, tetanus and the like, with no one seeing the need to publicly announce their immunisation status or take photos of their vaccinated arm.

Now, the word "vaccine," after being pounded into the global psyche by the pandemic-driven media, seems to refer to only one kind...the covid "vax." "Vaccine" is one of the words that covid has technically stolen from us, claiming it as its own, along with "mask," "sanitise" and "distancing."

Gone are the days when most deaths announced on traditional or social media are a result of murder or accidents. Since covid came on the scene, the proliferation of daily death reports (either as numbers/data or as names with photographs attached) has escalated to never-before-seen proportions. Who died and the need to know how has become a public matter.

Gone are the days when someone could have simply "died of natural causes," without suspicions being raised and questions being asked. Now, social media news reports of "sudden deaths" are plagued with questions: "Did he/she have covid?"..."Was he/she vaxed or non-vaxed?"..."Will there be an autopsy?"... "We, the public, need to know!"

I am sure everyone longs to say: "Gone are the days of panic, paranoia and pandemics."