Dear Jasminda,

I saw some footage today of a woman who refused to wear a face mask in Bunnings because it was taking away her freedom to choose. As a parent of a child with an auto-immune disease, I just don’t understand.
Mrs June P.

Dear June,

I will confess that I went on a search after your conundrum to see if I could find the offending footage and I quickly came across the video of this woman ranting at the poor Bunnings staff. I mean don’t they have enough to deal with with customers who can’t remember the shade of white they want to paint their coffee table or who can’t find their husband because he said he was going to aisle 37 and he’s not there, without having to deal with some middle-class legal studies dropout pain-in-the-neck with a patronising chai-latte-laced-with-Prozac tone who suggests she can have the poor Bunnings staff member ‘personally sued’ for merely trying to follow their Covid-safe protocol?

Personally sued? Is this woman insane? Actually, I think therein lies the answer. The coronavirus has unearthed a whole lot of people who have way too much time on their hands and who spend countless hours falling down conspiracy theory rabbit holes only to climb out and start ranting at service and healthcare workers who are just trying to do their job.

Seriously, how is wearing a mask a breach of human rights? We are not being asked to shrink wrap our bodies. We are not being asked to wear a full suit of armour. And we most certainly aren’t being asked to spend hours at a time sweating in full PPE gear unless we are one of the healthcare workers who deal with those poor individuals who have become ill. We are simply being asked to consider the health and safety of others so more people don’t get sick and we can get back to some semblance of normality.

I tell you, June, I think many of us have lost a bit of faith in humanity lately and people like this woman aren’t doing much to remedy that. I wish both you and your child health and happiness.

Carpe diem, Jasminda.