Should I keep wearing my mask or should I fling it in the closet? Should I balloon my bubble or keep it tight? Should I leave it all on the nightclub dance floor or stay busting moves in the kitchen?
With the recent lifting of most of B.C.鈥檚 COVID-19 safety measures, you may have been asking yourself these questions. Everybody鈥檚 answer will be a little different depending on their circumstances.
Steven Taylor, a professor with the UBC department of psychiatry, told me in a phone interview this week that when restrictions are lifted, most people 鈥渂ounce back鈥� rapidly to their old behaviours.
鈥淏ut that doesn鈥檛 apply to everyone,鈥� he said. 鈥淪ome people are very anxious or they鈥檙e slow to warm up and some people are highly anxious and are in need of treatment for their anxiety.鈥�
If you have a friend who鈥檚 anxious about re-opening, Taylor recommends asking them what they need and what would help them feel more comfortable.
鈥淒on鈥檛 go telling them 鈥榦h you should take off your mask 鈥� let me take that off for you鈥�. You want to enable their sense of control and let them do whatever opening up they want to do at their own pace.鈥�
When you鈥檙e indoors, consider wearing your mask to keep yourself and others safe. If someone doesn鈥檛 want to stand next to you, give them space. When you go in for the handshake or a hug, ask if someone is comfortable with that first. Essentially: use your COVID common sense and don鈥檛 be rude.
When April 8 comes around the B.C. Vaccine Card will be lifted and unvaccinated people will be once again allowed in all the spaces where the card is currently required. In those spaces, the topic of vaccination might be best relegated to the social realm of politics and religion 鈥� it鈥檚 not worth starting a bar fight over someone鈥檚 vaccination status.
As restrictions lift, your friends and family members who are disabled, immunocompromised or elderly will likely feel left behind. For them, it鈥檚 not a matter of comfort 鈥� COVID is a matter of life and death. Find ways to continue spending time with them in a way that they feel is safe. Don鈥檛 make assumptions about what they need. Ask them what they need and respect their boundaries.
Whatever you choose to do, enjoy this period of relatively reduced COVID transmission because it won鈥檛 last forever. We are very much still in a pandemic and cases are rising globally. The actions that we take today will have an impact on COVID infections 鈥� and restrictions 鈥� in the future.
Cole Schisler is a provincial reporter with Black Press Media.
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cole.schisler@bpdigital.ca
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