Two of our volunteers were interviewed for The Sick Times Article – A brief oral history of mask blocs: Part 1.
“Katrina, Covid Safe Colorado: My pronouns are they/them. I’m 47, the oldest person in Covid Safe Colorado. I was born in Colorado and came back here in 2022. My divorce happened because of COVID. My ex, during the Omicron spike [said]: I’m not going to take the same precautions that you are and I’m going to live my life. I am not through the damage that has done. I have mast cell activation syndrome [MCAS]; finding another place to live is a nightmare for me. I did choose to move across multiple states, but that was all I could think of.
We started with five people in a Covid-Cautious Colorado Discord server. I had been following Fight COVID NOLA and watching them put masks in a box they had hung up at a playground. I needed an outlet for my rage, and I had the little baby hope that it would help me create community too.
Anonymous organizer, Covid Safe Colorado: I’m in my thirties, I have kids and a husband and I live in a house. My family had gone through a pretty bad experience with COVID in 2022. We did all the right things. But because all the mitigations were ending, my kids brought it home from preschool and we got really, really sick. I’ve figured out what underlying conditions we may have had that have contributed to that, but of course anybody can get Long COVID. It’s a danger for everybody, and I wish more people understood that.
My lack of trust in the government really started when they dropped mask mandates before kids under 5 could get the vaccine. We could not wait two more months before just “going back to normal,” as most people called it?”
