What I See with Peter Fiorenza: Age of mask-wearing makes ‘CMI’ — COVID mistaken identity — a real dilemma

The other day, my good friend Jessica took her new bub to the doctor for a check-up. Now, Jess is a really friendly soul, who doesn’t mind going out of her way to greet you. As she entered the surgery, as expected, everyone was wearing a mask. She spied a familiar face across the room, waved and said a big “hello”. After checking in, Jess decided she would go right over and sit next to the lady. As you would expect, she continued to make small talk with this person, enthusiastically chatting about her baby and the day she was having. After a while, she sensed the woman, although friendly, seemed a little distant in her response. And then it dawned on her. The person was not the person Jess thought she was. OMG. Jessica had been blabbing away to a complete stranger about her little girl and what was generally going on in her life — from sleepless nights to her son’s kindergarten adventures — while the whole time, this woman had no idea who the hell she was. So, in an effort to not bring more attention to the blunder, she decided to just sit in awkward silence until she was called in by the doctor. I reckon this would make for a great sketch on a comedy show. And I’m pretty sure something like this has not just happened to Jess. In our current climate, I bet there would be countless similar stories across Australia and, indeed, the world, where people have fallen foul to such a slip. Before the pandemic, wearing a face mask would have been considered something unusual. But now, it has become common place, even with government restrictions being relaxed, to see a lot of people stilled masked-up. And often, it is difficult to recognise someone, even when they walk straight past you. In fact, this situation has allowed many of us to roam around in public almost incognito. There has been quite a number of occasions, when I have walked up to family and friends, who have taken a while to recognise me and this has been quite amusing. I’m sure we all have a story which could come under the title of “CMI” — COVID mistaken identity. Peter Fiorenza hosts Fiorenza on Sunday between 10am and noon on Radio MAMA