Centers. for Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia
By Meena Venkataramanan | Arizona Republic
Jimmy Thomason, is the executive director of Aunt Rita’s Foundation, an HIV/AIDS support organization. He is seen by a large ribbon for HIV and AIDS awarenesses in the lobby of his office building in Phoenix on June 24, 2021.
Jordan Smith has undergone three surgeries to treat brain cancer.
But when the COVID-19 pandemic erupted last March, the 39-year-old from Phoenix said he remained “nonchalant.”
“This is not my first dance with death,” Smith, who works for the state government, remembers telling a coworker.
Still, he took precautions to ensure that he wouldn’t put others at risk of contracting the deadly new coronavirus by making sure he wore a mask wherever he went and received the vaccine when it became available.
“I just remember thinking, I have got to do whatever I can to stop this from getting any further,” he said.
Now that the CDC’s mask mandate for unvaccinated individuals has been lifted, Smith worries that the virus will spread and put others at risk, especially other immunocompromised individuals who haven’t received the vaccine. Arizona is in the bottom half of states when it comes to the percentage of its population — 49% — that has received at least one dose.
“There is an element of worry, of, like, ‘OK, are we just doing the honor system?’” Smith said, adding that he makes sure to bring a mask with him wherever he goes, even though he is vaccinated.
