Put On The Cover: Why covering your face in public is near-essential

Walking through the Target produce aisle to purchase my mom’s specific shredded lettuce for taco night, I hear the hacks and sniffles from other people around me. Observing all the produce, I suddenly realize that the germs in my breath are most likely hitting the food, and I can’t help but think about all the other germs that the assorted produce must be covered with.

Usually I’m not this obsessive-compulsive and just pick the apple that looks the best, but with this new pandemic and the mass hysteria it’s caused, it’s hard not to overthink the amount of germs on the Granny Smith apple while I’m in the super market. The coughing and sneezing around me grosses me out more than usual, and the thought of people’s germs lingering in the air is frightening — which is why it should be mandatory that people have their mouths covered while in public.

According to USA Today, the coronavirus can live in the air for hours and can survive on surfaces for several days. That makes me think about all the areas I’ve breathed in, whether it’s the dairy aisle of Whole Foods or the entry way to Hen House. And to think — there’s thousands of people exhaling their germs in the same exact places I am.

The microscopic saliva particles roaming the streets like shoppers on Black Friday could easily be taken care of. If people only touched products while wearing sterile gloves and walked in community areas with their noses and mouths covered with masks, then the diseased substances in our world would decline significantly.

According to healthline.com, wearing a mask properly if you’re sick can prevent others from enduring the illness. And above all else, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention is now recommending that people wear masks if they go outside. 

Doctors originally said that only the ill should be wearing masks when they’re outside of their house. Personally speaking, everyone should be wearing a mask around others because symptoms of the virus can take anywhere from three to 14 days to be present, and I’m used to having the mindset that you’re only sick if you feel sick. 

I could be walking around feeling 100 percent and then in the next few days I can’t go 5 minutes without having a coughing fit. The people who were around me in the days before could all be infected and they just don’t know it yet — simply because I didn’t cover up my face and breathed on something they touched. 

Grace Tucker | The Harbinger Online

Those blue medical masks aren’t the only type of protection people are using to cover their face — people are strutting the isles in colored bandanas and scarves to protect them as well. I agree with people saying the nice face masks should be preserved for those who work in healthcare, but that doesn’t mean people can’t find a different strategy to shield themselves.

After all the years my sister and I were Girl Scouts, our house contains a fair amount of bandanas to choose from. Finding bandanas and other items to cover up with may not be the problem. Some may face a sense of embarrassment thinking they look like a fool — but the amount of people saved would be well worth the temporary humility.

If everyone is wearing something or finding a way to block their mouths, there would be no reason for embarrassment — everyone would look like health conscious idiots together.

If I was walking around in the store and I saw that every single person had a mask on, I wouldn’t have to question whose breath is on the cucumber that I want to chop into my salad. There would be far less germs roaming the air that would’ve picked my head of lettuce to land on, and fewer diseased particles would be floating onto my cabbage.

Though the stay at home orders are in place, essential locations like grocery stores aren’t avoidable. People may not know if they’re sick due to symptoms being mild, or maybe they haven’t shown at all yet — so people should just be safe and cover their face.