A Little While Ago

So I went to my 4:15 doctor's appointment (a very minor matter) in a medical building in Beverly Hills. Everyone I saw on the street on my way there was wearing a mask. Everyone in the building was wearing a mask. A sign on my doctor's door said masks were mandatory and indeed, everyone inside was wearing a mask.

On my way out, I passed another office in the building and there was a hysterical, furious person outside the door in the hall. She was unmasked and insisting that California was "open" and mask-wearing could no longer be required in any way.

The door to that office had the same sign my doctor had saying that you couldn't come in without one. She went in anyway and was told to get out and not to come back without a mask. She had exited angrily and was now out in the corridor, arguing with two nurses who had come out to explain the rules to her. Either on her way in or out, she had ripped most of the sign off the door.

For emphasis: This was a doctor's office. The doctor to whom she had come for medical care had put the sign up or approved having that sign up. And I don't think it would be a bad idea to wear a mask in any doctor's office, virus or no virus. There could be sick people in that office. That's where they tend to congregate.

The nurses kept saying, "The doctor can set the rules for his office" and the Very Loud Lady kept saying, "No, no! He's not allowed to require that anymore! No one is!" I don't know what medical condition the V.L.L. was there for but it was apparently much less important than winning that argument.

Finally, just after I got in the elevator to go down, she gave up and got in the elevator with me. Whereupon I got out and let it go down without me. Just before it did, I heard her say, "It's safe to ride with me!" I thought of saying, "According to C.D.C. guidelines, Stupid is still contagious." But I couldn't get it out before the doors closed.