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Athena's avatar

I remember being in a store in May with my daughter. She wore a mask and I didn't. She asked if I worried about what people thought. I told her and anyone else who would listen-When we accommodate fear, we reinforce it. For the record, I don't give damn what people think about me.

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Gurth the Thrall's avatar

Our fourth and youngest was born in late 2019 with Down's syndrome. When she was born her doctors told us that she was particularly vulnerable to respiratory viruses. We asked what this meant for church, socializing, hospitality, etc. They said to try to be careful, but that it would be terribly harmful both to her and to us if we isolated her and ourselves from others. She was hospitalized (and in the ICU) with RSV (+Covid?) for a week from Christmas to New Year's, because someone from church got our family sick. We would have NEVER asked anyone in our family or society to stop their lives in order to possibly keep her out of the hospital; they would have thought we were insane if we did.

We've spent much of the last year and a half arguing with her physical and speech therapy agency (through a county program for low-income families) to get them to move sessions to in-person, since for most of her life she's been doing "therapy" on Zoom. Even the Texas state health department has told us "too bad," since they're (technically) a private company who can do what they want.

Today our daughter had an appointment with her eye specialist (one of a handful of specialists she sees every few months). This doctor's office called earlier saying that because she's just turned two, we need to mask her. My wife refused. They said, "It's OK if she doesn't keep it on, but you must agree to at least try to make her wear it." My wife adamantly refused, and filed a complaint. At the end of the appointment today (at which multiple staff and a nurse told my wife how ridiculous they think all this is), my wife told the doctor that parents should be free to decide whether or not to force a mask on their 25-month-old disabled children. The doctor exploded at her and viciously argued with her about how this is the "national policy," how it's for everyone's safety, how her own toddler does fine wearing a mask all day at preschool, and how we should find a different doctor. We are so angry and disturbed.

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