I was shopping at my local supermarket on the Upper West Side in Manhattan when all of a sudden I felt something hit the right side of my body. I immediately turned away from the bread shelf and looked towards the origins of the impact. And there, within inches from me, was another person! It was close physical contact in the time of Covid 19 and, even worse, the person who bumped into me wasn’t wearing a mask! He immediately apologized and asked if I was OK. But I would happily have done without an apology and preferred that he keep his maskless mouth shut.

I had on a mask, and my 2nd vaccination was 6 weeks before, but that doesn’t mean that I’m comfortable being a breath away from a maskless stranger inside a building.

In my pre-vaccinated days, for the times when I needed to be inside that same supermarket, I wore 2 masks and a face shield. I stopped wearing the face shield 2 weeks after my 2nd vaccine but this incident had me thinking whether that extra layer of the face shield would give me that added comfort level. Then I tried to remember that I’d had the vaccine. I reminded myself that even if I got Covid from this maskless stranger, it would be a mild case.

I’m simply amazed at people who either aren’t sure whether they’ll roll up their sleeves for the shot or have decided that they won’t. I do wonder, though, whether I’d ever again go outside my apartment without a mask.