Generally, I’d like to remember things the way I remember them, not as they really were.
In an on-line course I studied about memory, it was explained that our memory changes things from a fact or event briefly held in the mind to something more permanent. And the mind changes the memory as it goes over the memory in thought or, importantly, during sleep. In some ways, we remember a real distortion from reality.
So I now I find, by consulting the google-machine, that waes hael isn’t the Anglo-Saxon greeting I remember Professor Robert E. Chisnell telling me it was. Probably, he didn’t teach that at all because it seems that it was more in era of Middle English. It does indeed mean “Be Healthy!” and was used as a toast, becoming the word wassail in Modern English.
Nonetheless, I propose Waes Hael! or even Wassail! as a pandemic times greeting. Be Healthy! And for the yahoos who won’t wear a mask I thing Be Gone! would suit.
Two Strikes 