Beware the Close Talker

Growing up, my sister had a friend she called Close Talking Chloe.  Her friend was a nice girl but when in conversations, she seemed to have no spatial awareness.  i.e. She was in your face.  A close talker, as Seinfeld would say.

Close talking isn’t a crime but it turns out that during the pandemic, it may be a risk to your health. According to a recent New York Times article, the share of COVID-19 transmission that has occurred outdoors may be below 0.1 percent. The rare outdoor transmission that has happened almost all seems to have involved crowded places or close conversation.  Close talkers!

At the height of the pandemic, I helped an older gentleman from the business office next to Orion load furniture into his truck. Sadly, the lockdown made his daughter’s business untenable. John wasn’t generally a close talker but when the conversation got intense, he did have a habit of pointing his finger like Harrison Ford and advancing on you. As he described the demise of his daughter’s business, John started backing me up the ramp outside the office. At first I kept trying to turn at 45° angles to make sure I was breathing fresh air. Finally I said, “John, I’m farsighted. That’s close enough.” He didn’t even realize he’d been advancing on me.

The good news here is that data continue to reinforce that the risk of outdoor COVID-19 transmission is very, very low. In most cases, you do not need a mask… unless you are talking to Chloe or an angry John.