by Dr Neals J Chitan
Despite my avid support for the Covid-19 protocols here in Grenada, I must confess that as someone who is mildly claustrophobic, I hate covering my face.
Because of this, I have narrowly missed being pronounced a lawbreaker several times as I try as hard as I can to cooperate with the mask-wearing protocols for the greater good of the nation.
However, this level of personal discomfort has never abated for me and I kept eagerly anticipating the day when we can remove these facial barriers creating a weird unrecognisable common look among us, for our personal uniquely admirable faces that we were known for. Imagine the disconnect felt between friends who must take a second and third look before recognising what used to be such familiar faces, now hidden behind face masks.
Although lockdowns, quarantine and curfews have all held us hostage, in my estimation and probably bias opinion, face masks have held us victims even more. Imagine the unnatural movement of pulling a mask in place just to push your head into an office door to ask, “Where do I park?” or in a store to say, “Do you have eggs?” Or even worse, to be reprimanded with “You can’t come in without a mask Sir.” And of course, my very frequent under-my-breath response “I hate that darn thing,” as I fit it around my nose and mouth.
As the conversation continues, despite the need to reduce person-to-person transmission of Covid-19 virus through mask-wearing, we hear so-called undisputed discussions like, the high levels of carbon dioxide that is exhaled into your mask and re-inhaled into the lungs again, with health officials and mask manufacturers doubting the truth of this issue in their quest for mask-wearing compliance and more production.
So, in our eager anticipation to ease off the stiff mask-wearing regulation, we look with hope to other regions experiencing an onslaught of Covid-19 infections to see how they are reasonably dealing with or adjusting their protocols. On 13 May 2021, the USA Centres for Disease Control (CDC) in their face covering guidelines announced new regulations which give fully vaccinated individuals the right to “resume activities without wearing masks or physically distancing.” According to US News on 1 June 2021, Contributor Kaia Hubbard listed 34 states and territories that are now without mask mandates, and why not?
If the Covid-19 vaccines protect individuals from being seriously infected, hospitalised or from dying from the virus, and furthermore destroy it, then taking the vaccines can seriously increase the chances of life returning to normal!! So, “Take the jab and finish the task of wearing the mask!!”
This I think is a great promotional line for countries like Grenada where people are hesitant to get vaccinated, but also are breaching the mask protocol. Yep, after giving it some worthwhile thought, I believe that like in the CDC’s face-covering guidelines of 13 May 2021, if Grenada legislates that individuals who can produce proof of full vaccination will be exempted from wearing a face mask, it will spur on people who hate the mask, like me, to join the vaccine line.
Today (1 June) I went to Kirani James Stadium to have my Covid-19 Vaccination Card laminated and while waiting, I decided to share my thoughts on this issue with Antonia Bubb, one of the vaccine staff there. She was absolutely impressed and also believe that such legislation can drive the vaccination campaign in Grenada and other regions, thus quickly realising the numbers required for herd immunity and life returning to normal without that pesky face mask and other regulations.
Dr Neals Chitan is an International Social Skill Consultant and Crime Reduction Specialist who holds a PhD in Social and Behavioural Sciences and currently works in Grenada. He is the President/Founder of Motiv-8 For Change International a Toronto-based Social Skill Agency and can be reached from North America at 647-692-6330 and locally 473-416-8377 or at [email protected]
NOW Grenada is not responsible for the opinions, statements or media content presented by contributors. In case of abuse, click here to report.
Narrator, (Tut tut) your narrative is questionable and you really need to do more homework regarding masks. With all due respect, people like you can be a danger to the inhabitants of Grenada.
Exactly
Great comments…I fully understand and appreciate your words. THANK YOU
Over and over we are told, “Follow the science”. True science is done by people who love science, NOT by individuals with an agenda or who are paid million dollar grants to achieve a certain outcome. The science has been done on masks (2 separate studies found similar results) and was almost completely ignored by the global health terrorism cartel. Why? It doesn’t fit the agenda.
Results: Out of 3030 participants there was a 0.3 % point reduction in infection between mask wearers vs. non mask wears.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33205991/
In other words, masks are almost useless.
While we are the subject…. Science, i.e. the truth is not found on the so-called authoritative sources, (WHO, CDC, CNN, MSNBC, etc.) who get untold millions in funding from the pharma companies; which unfortunately means most people have a head full of incorrect information and false assumptions.
Fortunately or unfortunately the only thing that is constant is change. I think it is important to realize the times we are living in and the need to change our behavior to suit the times we are living in.
Being mildly claustrophobic myself, I fully understand the author’s level of discomfort with wearing of the face masks, however I recognize that this is a proven effective way of containing this deadly virus.
It has already been proven that taking the covid vaccine does not prevent one from contracting or transmitting the disease. All it does is greatly reduce the chances of being hospitalized or dying from it. What does this mean? Even if we are fully vaccinated, we can catch covid and yes, we can also spread it. When you are dealing with a population where only barely 10% of the population are fully vaccinated, such as Grenada, what this means is that fully vaccinated people, if they are allowed not to follow the other covid prevention protocols such as mask-wearing, sanitisation, and distancing, will, in effect, become covid carriers, infecting the 90% of the population who are not yet vaccinated.
This means that chilldren who cannot take the vaccine can be infected by a fully vaccinated person who refuses to wear his mask because it is “uncomfortable” and they can die from it. This means that elderly grandmothers or grandfathers who are not vaccinated as yet can get this disease from their fully-vaccinated grandchildren, and, yes, die from covid, while their grandchildren continue living and are so saddened that granny or pappy had to pass away, all because they were “uncomfortable” wearing a mask.
Knowing the facts about this disease and also the facts about what the vaccine can and cannot do is important. We have to understand that we do not live in an individual bubble and that our actions can and do affect the lives of other people, and that we can be responsible if that person contracts the disease and ultimately dies from it simply because we hate wearing a mask. Do we really want to live with that guilt of causing the death of another, or have we really become so selfish that we only think of our comfort above the lives of others?
Your comments are highly appreciated. It’s just a pity that there is such strong resistance to vaccination!!
Sounds great but like most things in life you have to make sure that all your citizens are ready to take the vaccine…So you may ask what are the requirements needed to get vaccine?
They state that you must carry your ID or some other documents like a passport…Now are all our citizens have one of the above?
If so then we can push forward with getting all our citizens vaccinated.