I like to think of myself as a trusting person. After all, I got married — one of the biggest trust gambles a person can take in life — trusting in the happily-ever-after that every Hollywood rom-com and Disney fairy tale promised. When that didn’t work out, I tried again. Yeah, no. You can’t count on happily-ever-after when one person is no longer trustworthy.
Still, it didn’t deter me. I tend to think people are basically well meaning, knowing full well that we have both good and bad within all of us, and that we have full control over which side we present to whom, when and why.
Which is why I am now facing a major dilemma. The Centers for Disease Control is telling us that most people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, as I am, no longer have to wear a mask in most indoor settings. California is waiting until June 15 to put that into action — wisely, if you ask me — but after that? Anything goes and it’s anyone’s guess.
On June 15, I just may start seeing more bad in people than good. Because I just don’t trust that unvaccinated people are going to do the right thing and mask up. And while the vaccines are incredibly effective, they are not 100%, which is why people are still catching COVID-19 despite being fully vaccinated. Some have even died.
Thankfully, we didn’t see a lot of the virulent anti-mask behavior here in Marin this past year, although there certainly were moments. Residents didn’t call in more than 250 complaints about COVID misbehavior people last summer to the county’s tip line over nothing. Don’t even get me started on the misbehavior chatter on Nextdoor.
Even though many Marin residents have gotten fully vaxxed — we have one of the highest vaccination rates in the state, according to Dr. Matt Willis, Marin’s public health officer — only 54% of the population is fully immunized. And let’s not forget that Marin gets a lot of out-of-state tourists who want to explore our beautiful county, eat in our restaurants, shop in our boutiques, and talk, laugh and sneeze in our air. Can we trust someone who thinks the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6 was just like a “normal tourist visit“? Can we trust anyone who still believes in the Big Lie? Can we trust anyone who threw a hissy-fit in Costco or Target or Walmart or any other store, restaurant or supermarket that had a mask mandate to protect their workers? Can we trust anyone who protested about “my body, my choice” over the safety of their family, neighbors and strangers? Can we trust anyone who believes in QAnon?
Sorry, I can’t.
About one in four Americans say they’re not going to get the coronavirus vaccine no matter what; others are undecided. And some with health concerns either can’t get the vaccine or aren’t well protected from it, creating an us-versus-them thing that’s absolutely ableist and may subject people who need to remain masked to judgment, taunting, anger or worse. It is amazing how triggering wearing a mask can be for some people.
And it’s amazing how many people are less than honest. Any person who has ever been on a dating website or app knows that people lie. They lie about their age, height and weight; they post photos that are old, when they still had hair and looked kind of cute. Sometimes they even lie about STDs and their marital status.
People are often out for themselves, like in the college admission scandal or by hoarding toilet paper and sanitizer early in the pandemic or, more recently, gasoline. Or like Marin’s NIMBYs who are all for social and racial justice and equal rights, but won’t allow affordable housing or housing for people experiencing homelessness to be located in their hood. No “Kumbaya” there.
Behavioral economist Dan Ariely knows a lot about how honest humans are, or not. Writing about one of the experiments he and his team at Duke University’s Center for Advanced Hindsight (have to love that name) conducted, Ariely says, “most of us, when tempted, are willing to be a little dishonest, regardless of the risks.”
To our credit, he notes, even when we know we’re not going to get caught, we don’t turn into major cheats — “our conscience imposes some limits.”
That’s comforting, I suppose. That said, he adds that humans “have an incredible ability to rationalize our dishonesty.” You bet we do!
There are no consequences for not telling the truth about whether we’re vaccinated or not. None. And I have to imagine that retailers, grocers and restaurants that want to enforce a mask mandate in their businesses are going to have to put up with a lot of grief from people who may or may not be vaccinated.
My body, my choice!
According to research, the average person lies at least once or twice a day. Of course, that seems like nothing considering our former president lied more than 30,000 times in four years, but still. Maybe we don’t even care anymore.
I do. I fear we may be putting some people at risk and that doesn’t sit well with me.
I cannot tell a lie — my mask will stay on.
Vicki Larson’s So It Goes column runs every other week. Contact her at vlarson@marinij.com and follow her on Twitter at OMG Chronicles
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May 25, 2021 at 02:00AM
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My body, my choice, and my mask stays on - Marin Independent Journal
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