Image of a wall with letters stuck to it reading: “To make something special you just have to beleive it’s special”
Photo by Mert Talay on Unsplash

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You’re Not That Special

Social media has given us a way to tell the world what we think, how we think, and why we think that way. But should we?

René F. Najera, MPH, DrPH
4 min readFeb 5, 2022

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I had an interesting exchange on social media the other day. Johns Hopkins University posted a video to Instagram where a person who was not wearing a mask properly was compared to a clown. After two years of the pandemic, there are people out there who still do not understand how to properly wear a mask. Like many other people, I made a comment: “Mask it or casket!” I made that comment because it became the catchphrase of my daughter (a preschooler) when she sees someone without a mask.

Sure, her little quip has gotten us — her parents — in trouble because she has managed to say it in appropriate situations, like when she said it to a friend whose father had passed away recently from COVID-19. Or the time she yelled it at the top of her lungs at the grocery store. But she is a preschooler, so people just let it pass.

Inevitably, some random dude showed up and replied he has not been vaccinated, does not wear a mask, has caught COVID several times, and is healthier than anyone who gets the vaccine or wears a mask. I blocked him, of course. However, I did think about people like him: people who think they are special.

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René F. Najera, MPH, DrPH
René F. Najera, MPH, DrPH

Written by René F. Najera, MPH, DrPH

DrPH in Epidemiology. Public Health Instructor. Father. Husband. "All around great guy." https://linktr.ee/rene.najera

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