Righteous anger has never been a particularly effective way of convincing people to act. Neither has fearmongering. Maybe a pleading approach will work? It’s worth a try, so here goes.
 
Please
Please
PLEASE

Wear a mask and keep your distance. Wear a mask, basically always. Keep your distance from others, which means don’t hang out in groups. And if you do gather, do it outside. Three simple asks.
 
Yes, we’ve all heard this advice a zillion times already! The chorus is beyond tiresome. But repetitive messaging falls on deaf ears… until it just simply gets incorporated into daily life. That’s why I am pleading again: Wear a mask. Do your part, stay apart. And get out into the great wide open. Because these little acts will save a life – maybe your own, maybe a stranger’s.
 
Yes, the vaccine is coming (Pfizer vax endorsed yesterday by FDA!), but it’s not here for the masses quite yet. It’s not even here for healthcare workers yet. And in case you are wondering about the masking advice coming in mid-2021: you’ll still need to keep masking even after you’re vaccinated (like William Shakespeare).
 
The advice holds true for young and old: wear a mask and keep your distance if you are a kid playing a sport – or if you’re anyone playing anything with other people around. Just because kids tend to be asymptomatic or have super-mild symptoms doesn’t mean they cannot pass virus along.
 
Mask up, stay six feet apart, and hang out outdoors even if you just got tested and learned you are negative, because that negative test only proves that you didn’t have enough virus in your body to test positive at the very moment you were swabbed. And by the way, opt for the PCR test over the antigen version, especially for kids, when you can.
 
Wear a mask, distance yourself, and get out already to honor the public health advocates who are begging you to make these regular habits. While you’re at it, it might be nice to thank some of those people because they spend their days fighting to protect all of us but meanwhile are being pelted with hate and even death threats. And big props to this guy: a fast-talking doctor who only needs one minute to upend anti-vaxx myths.
 
While we mask-up, space-out, and get-out, we can still celebrate non-COVID news, like the fact that youth vaping is down in a big way… or that men are now flexing about sewing. But the sooner we all get with this program, the sooner I can stop sending these newsletters and you will be spared the same refrain over and over.
 
Until then, I’m am begging: mask, distance, outdoors, repeat.