Be a superhero – wear a mask

Spiderman wears one. He is a great role model to aspire to especially during a pandemic. Lately Spiderman (aka Stuart Tyson) has been seen running around St Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne for his daily one hour of exercise. One hour is the permitted time allowance for exercise during Stage 4 lockdown in Victoria. Spiderman was hoping to spread a bit of joy around during the pandemic. From all reports it seems like he has achieved his goal.

Apart from the occasional heckle, Tyson says his superhero-dom has been a great success. “I’ve been requested to fly up trees and buildings by some children and to shoot my web, which I have politely declined,” he says.

The Sydney Morning Herald, Melissa Singer 20 August 2020

Keep your snout and mouth behind your mask

Since the wearing of masks became mandatory, I’m happy to say that most of us have become Superheroes. We are doing our bit to save lives.  And why wouldn’t we? It’s not a big ask to keep your snout and mouth behind your mask but the payoff is huge. The virus is killing thousands of people every day around the world. Without a mask, droplets from sneezes and coughs are propelled through the air at speeds of up to 60,000 kilometres per hour. They can land on other people or surfaces up to 6 metres away. Is it any wonder that the number of new infections of Covid cases have dropped dramatically since the wearing of masks became mandatory in Victoria?

Just do what you’re told – it’s not that hard

But there are some people who refuse to wear masks. Day after day we are all bombarded with these types on the news and other forms of social media. I’m not sure why they get such an excessive amount of air time. Some of them even get interviews on chat shows. And get kicked off chat shows. I’m sure it must incite others to do the wrong thing so they can get their bit of fame as well. These idiots just don’t care and refuse to follow orders from the Chief Health Officer. They believe it is their human right to have the freedom to do whatever they want. But what about the rest of us? Isn’t it our human right to remain safe? And alive?  These selfish Victorians  spend a lot of time filming themselves and quoting from the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Learned folk have publicly exposed them to be idiots by pointing out their utterances are completely wrong. But even publicly exposing their stupidity has not silenced them. I don’t suppose they read as far as Article 29. That should have cleared things up for them.   

You can tell the type

Last week a colleague drove into a service station to get supplies on her way to work. There was youth not wearing a mask in front of her in the queue. He was offered a mask and told to read the sign by the young girl working behind the counter.  ‘No mask, no service’. That was enough to cause a rage about his ‘civil liberties’.  When my colleague drove off, the anti-masker was ahead of her speeding down the highway, weaving in and out of traffic. My colleague’s observation was ‘you can tell the type.’ I had to agree with her. He might have been the one to put this comment on Twitter.

“Where is our civil liberties? I guess they don’t exist no more,” wrote one Victorian on Twitter, showcasing not just distasteful self-righteousness but a grievous command of grammar.

news.com.au, Angela Mollard, 20 July 2020

The everyday Superhero

My brother John has always been a great believer in wearing masks for infection control. He didn’t need a pandemic and mandatory mask wearing to be a Superhero.  In my former life in Tasmania, John used to pick me up for work every day. One Monday morning when I saw his car coming towards me something just didn’t look right. I couldn’t quite work out what was behind the steering wheel. It turned out to be John wearing a medical mask. He said he’d had the flu and now he didn’t want to infect anyone else. Got to admire his selfless attitude and preparedness for a pandemic. Driving through Hobart towards work stopping at the usual traffic lights people were giving a double-take. Hadn’t they ever seen a Superhero in a mask before?

And my Superhero …

This provoked special memories for my daughter Sarah. As a sixteen-year old in 2003, she had saved all her money to travel overseas alone to visit her sister Hannah. Hannah was living in France as an exchange student at the time. This was the same year that Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) was first reported. Although there was only ever one diagnosed case in Australia, the world was on high alert. Sarah’s family and friends were on high alert. They gave her a huge supply of SARS masks as a going away gift.  Flight attendants were even handing them out to all passengers on her flights. According to Sarah there was only one person on the flight who didn’t don their mask. After all people had a choice back then. Nowadays Sarah is a Superhero and just like our local Spiderman she is a trainee psychologist. But at the tender age of 16 she confused not wearing a mask with being brave.