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A child’s plea: Everyone should wear a mask in public

6-year-old with Type 1 diabetes said his life depends on people being smart, careful

By Wesley LeBlanc wesely@opcfla.com
Posted 9/2/20

CLAY COUNTY – Roman Altamirando is a 6-year-old whose life may depend on you wearing a mask.

Masks have become a political issue amidst the global COVID-19 pandemic. Some say it’s their right …

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A child’s plea: Everyone should wear a mask in public

6-year-old with Type 1 diabetes said his life depends on people being smart, careful


Posted

CLAY COUNTY – Roman Altamirando is a 6-year-old whose life may depend on you wearing a mask.

Masks have become a political issue amidst the global COVID-19 pandemic. Some say it’s their right to choose whether to wear a mask. Some say everyone should wear a mask.

Altamirando doesn’t have a choice because he has Type 1 diabetes.

“A lot of people are getting really sick,” Altamirando said. “I’m trying to avoid getting near strangers and people because I don’t know if they have the virus or not. I always wear a mask. They’re very uncomfortable, but I always wear it anyway.”

Because Altamirando must be especially careful. His chances of catching the virus are just as high as anyone else’s chances but what’s different in his case is the risk the virus’ symptoms pose to his health. The risk of coronavirus-related complications or even death are higher for him because he falls in the immunocompromised category.

Even his younger sibling has their own set of complications like pulmonary hypertension. The of both has his parents, Tony and Jennifer, taking every precaution necessary.

“It’s a humanitarian thing,” Tony Altamirando said. “I’ve had this discussion with a few of my friends. They were on the other side of not wanting to wear a mask. They said that if I felt unsafe, I should wear a mask and it was a great learning moment to explain that wearing a mask protects others as well by stopping the spread.”

Tony said he explained the importance of masks in his family due to Altamirando’s Diabetes. When people realize who’s at risk and how much good something as simple as a mask can do, I think there’s the opportunity to change minds, Tony said. He said the topic should be approached as a humanitarian thing rather than something political.

Altamirando has been attending Tynes Elementary until this year when he began distance learning.

“When we saw that COVID-19 was coming to the U.S. and spreading quick, before they even started talking about all of the options for school this fall, we knew he wasn’t going to be going to an actual school,” the father said. “Their ability to stop one kid from possibly getting it from another is just really limited and it’s not a risk we can take.”

Altamirando began school last week. Like Clay County students learning from home, he said it can get boring.

“Well, I was hoping I’d be able to talk live but my real teacher can’t come back until next week so we can’t go live talking with each other until next week,” Altamirando said.

Jennifer Altamirando said the teacher has been out due to a family emergency and that Altamirando’s experience with distance learning so far has been very similar to the way distance learning took place earlier this year when schools shut down due to COVID-19. Altamirando is excited to talk to his teacher live when she returns.

Jennifer said Altamirando has been great about understanding the situation but that she and Tony are sad knowing he’s not getting the socializing a child his age is used to getting at school. He also misses sports, Jennifer said, but he knows things won’t be this way forever.

Tony said it’s just a matter of learning to live with this virus out there as it’s not going away anytime soon. We have to learn to adapt to it and be smart about our interactions.

“We just hope that people get the right understanding,” Tony said. “The worst thing that happens if you follow protocols like wearing a mask is that you’re uncomfortable and annoyed for a period of time. There’s no real harm.

“There is harm to come from not wearing a mask and you can’t undo that. You can’t undo what comes from this sickness. There are permanent side effects or even death. You can’t change those things, but you can help prevent them from happening in the first place by wearing a mask.”