Message on a Menu

So, my cousin Matt posted this picture on Facebook. Now, Cousin Matt is a level headed, no drama-kinda guy, and even he found this to be rather bizarre. I know we've all heard how wearing a mask is a kin of a gold star (and I kid you not, that bright star herself, Marjorie Taylor Greene really said this) from the Nazis:

Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazis forced Jewish people to wear a gold star...

I don't know about you, but that makes all those gold stars I got at my last job seriously suspect. Anyway, I'm equally sure Solzhenitsyn is spinning from having his name taken in vain in this way. 

We managed to have an interesting back and forth about the meaning behind the message:

Me: I’m not sure I would want to eat there. What other health and safety rules do they feel are part of the lie?

 Matt: I don’t think it’s a bad place, but a lot of people around here are very dramatic and put upon by mask wearing. You see nazi comparisons, the don’t tread on me flag, still trump flags all over the place eight months after the election. Everything is another infringement on their rights and there’s a constantly simmering resentment that never goes away.

Me: I get that. Really. But when health regulations are minimized, I can't help wondering about how the kitchen is run. We had a spate of kitchens with violations during the pandemic here in MN. The other part is why even put that on your menu? What message are you telegraphing? Does that become a valid question?   

And here comes the part I really liked:

Matt: Sure. And the most foolish part of it is that a business is choosing to needlessly alienate at least half of the people who see the sign. But there is no logic or reason involved in these things. A lot of anti vaxxers around here too, those things go hand in hand.

Let me repeat the key sentence in that last graph: The business is choosing to needlessly alienate at least half the people who see the sign. 

I am certain there will be people who will defend the right of the restaurant to post that notice. I am sure there is an audience for that sort of thing. I am equally sure that people want to eat in a place with the risk to their health is minimal at best. But it raises a bigger question, one I've written about before and I am sure I will write about it again: appearances matter.

When a new business opens its doors, usually a great deal of thought has gone into the name of that business and the visual branding of said business. You want me to learn the name, know the name, associate the name with good stuff. That's pretty much a given. Inside said business, you want your employees to appear confident, qualified, and well-versed in their chosen field. This is true to everyone from the bottom rung up. It doesn't matter what the job is, it should be done well. This is pretty basic stuff, folks.

So why go out of your way to tell strangers who come into your establishment that you think the pandemic was overblown and masks were there to make you unhappy? Really? Ever hear of Typhoid Mary?

Mary Mallon in the hospital 1909

Mary Mallon was not a comic figure or an urban legend. She was an asymptomatic carrier who infected the families for whom she worked. Follow the link; read the Wiki article. It's short enough. Granted, this took place at the start of the 20th century. But there are lessons to be learned.

A young woman I happen to know confessed she was scared of getting vaccinated. Yes, her kids got all their childhood vaccines, but she was needle-shy and worried she might get sick. At the same time, she has asked her mother to come to her between rounds of cancer treatment. I explained to her, as I am sure her mother's medical team will explain to her, that she cannot be around her mother if she remains unvaccinated. "If you insist your kids get their shots, how can you tell them you are too scared to get yours?" We had a long talk about it, we talked about asymptomatic carriers, but she said "all that stuff on the news" from the anti-vaxxers scares her. They do say some pretty scary things. I don't know if I convinced her to look at the science, but she said she will get her vaccine because she wants to see her mother. Any reason is a good one as far as I'm concerned. I just hope she actually gets it. 

Look, I'm just as happy as the next person that restrictions are being eased, and we are returning to some kind of new normal. But I do not believe for one New York minute that this is over. As the virus mutates into new, more contagious forms, we will all be getting boosters and updated vaccines. People who are not vaccinated will continue to carry and be at risk. The reality that the vaccine will not always keep you from picking up corona virus, but will lessen the impact if you do, seems not to be registering with some people. You can still get sick, but not AS sick.  Just look at the path of the Delta Variant. 

In the United Kingdom, where the Delta variant makes up 91 percent of new cases, one study found that the most reported symptoms were headache, sore throat, and runny nose. (US publication Healthline).              

The appearance of that strain is increasing in the US and more people, when testing positive, will show up with Delta Covid. Muppet News Flash: it won't always be that variant; soon another one will come along and once again, there will be a scramble to adjust vaccines. Hopefully, the bottom line is that thems that get vaccinated have a first level protection from the worst symptoms of the disease variant. No guarantees, of course. 

HOWEVER, and gee, isn't there always one of those. 

We are not outta the woods yet. Which makes me continue to don a mask in the grocery store. I don't know who's vaccinated and who is not. There are parts of the world where no vaccine is available, and there are pandemic pockets everywhere. As much as I want to go to Israel in the fall, it's not a foregone conclusion that international travel will be the best idea in a few months. All one can do is wait-and-see.  But none of that is giant. There is a much bigger elephant in this room...and it has less to do with pandemic and more to do with science. 

Going back to the article about Mary Mallon. Never mind that she was a cook who admitted she didn't wash her hands very often. One line really jumped out at me:

For example, Milton J. Rosenau and Charles V. Chapin both argued that she just had to be taught to carefully treat her condition and ensure that she would not transmit the typhoid to others. Both considered isolation to be an unnecessary, overly strict punishment.

Nice thought, but completely wrong. Again, she was transmitting typhoid to almost everyone she came in contact with. AND, she had one of her friends providing test samples which, of course, came back negative, while she was continuing to infect others. Do you really think times have changed?

No, they have not. In those days, the doctors and the hospital administrators were the ones pooh-poohing cleanliness and other assorted procedures we think of as sensible. Nowadays, we have whole broadcast networks declaring their lame-ass opinions are smarter than science. Sure, they are. And the leviathan lives at the edge of the ocean. Just like the restaurant with the message on their menu. Their opinions were not based on the science of Pasteur and Lister, fathers of germ theory, guys who changed medicine for the better. The anti-vaxx opinion is based on convenience. 

Solzhenitsyn

Ergo, the real problem with the notice on the menu is the message it sends the patrons of the establishment. Instead of acknowledging we are coming out of a pandemic and they are doing their due diligence to ensure the safety of their patrons, they are calling the actions taken to stem the pandemic a lie, and citing Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn to do it. Do they know he was a dissident who was jailed for exposing human rights abuses? Do they think requiring people to behave scientifically responsibly is a human rights abuse? 

Is the lie the part that attempts to save lives, or is the lie the part that encourages a false sense of complacency? 

I cannot help but wonder what Solzhenitsyn would think of his words being used in that fashion. And I cannot help but wonder what other science they discard in their quest for their version of the truth. 

And even if Matt thinks this is an okay place, I'm not so sure if I lived near there, I would eat in that establishment. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Yeah, the masks, for the most part, can come off.

That said, be smart about crowds and small spaces.

                                      And remember, little kids are not yet vaccinated.