Success! Sometimes you just have to speak up. [View all]

[wnylib]

Last edited Thu Jan 27, 2022, 05:09 AM - Edit history (1)

I live in a senior complex that consists of 3 multi-storied apartment buildings. For insurance and safety reasons, our fire alarm system in the halls and inside each apartment have to be inspected and tested once a year.

Last year it was done in May. On Monday, we were notified that the annual inspection would be done on Wednesday. Huh? It had not been a year. They were here just 8 months ago.

The infection rate in this area is 20%. Hospitalizations and deaths are going up. Breakthrough infections with omicron are common. Some people in these buildings are not vaccinated. These inspections, going from one apartment to the next sounded like a spreader event to me.

Sure, omicron is supposed to be not as severe as previous variants - if you are young and healthy. But we are all over 65 and there are many who have the range of health issues you can expect among seniors - diabetes, asthma, COPD, cancer. Breakthrough infections among us could be very serious.

I fumed about it and then called the management office. They didn't know anything about it, said that the maintenance manager handles the inspections. I read off the local infection statistics and reminded them of vulnerability problems among us. The complex manager agreed that January was early since they were here in May. He said I could refuse to let them in IF I signed a statement that it was due to covid concerns.

I expected a communications SNAFU with inspectors demanding to be let in. I was prepared to stand my ground. I am tired of avoiding bare-faced people and naked noses in public. I am tired of people who violate my space in public instead of distancing. I am tired of people who say that omicron is mild as I watch death and hospitalization statistics rise among seniors. I am tired of my doctor's receptionist on Monday whose oversized, loose mask kept slipping off her face while I checked in. I am tired of the doctor and her PA who wore their surgical masks at the tip of their noses without fitting the nose clip for a seal.

I need ONE SPACE in this world where I can feel safe - my home. I do not want strangers coming into it who might or might not be vaccinated, who might or might not wear a mask or wear it correctly, who might have picked up omicron and carried it from one apartment to the next. I do not want to risk that some stranger might carry the virus and leave it behind in the air of my home for me to inhale when I take my mask off after they leave.

But, my phone call worked beyond my expectations. After speaking to me, the complex's manager told the maintenance manager to reschedule the inspections for May, like last year, in the hope that things will look better then. Whew. I am relieved. The magats who live here won't care that I got a postponement, but I didn't do it for them. I did it for the rest of us.