Unmasking The Science
As a grocery delivery driver, the first few months of the global health crisis were… wild, to say the least.
Firstly, I went from pretty much being treated like a non-entity by my customers to some kind of superhero. I would roll my trolley of groceries up to a customer’s house and would leave with chocolate, cold drinks, and more hand sanitiser and wet wipes than I could use in two lifetimes. I made a small fortune in tip money.
One night while I was working, a guy standing at a crossing started jumping and clapping and waving at me, giving me thumbs-up.
But then, there were also the REALLY stupid people.
I lost count of the number of times I’d get to a front door and have a customer open it coughing and spluttering.
Customer: “I should warn you I tested positive.”
But this one is without a doubt the worst customer I had. I was wearing my facemask, and as soon as his door opened, he launched into a rant about how masks were useless and didn’t help anything, I should do my own research, etc.
Me: “Look, you think whatever you want, but my godmother is a phlebotomist for the National Health Service and has been wearing masks at work for over thirty years. My best friend is doing her Ph.D. in biogenetics and wears a mask every day in the lab. My sister’s father-in-law was an army doctor and wore masks whenever he worked with patients. My aunt is the head of logistics for [Ambulance Service], and they spent a small fortune on masks and other PPE for their crews back at the end of 2019. So, that’s my research, and frankly, I’m going to value that over something a random idiot said on the Internet.”