Covid has dominated our lives and conversations for the last 14 months. Most of it involved painfully slow progress on the cases then vaccination fronts, but a couple of events brought absurdly rapid change. The first was when the pandemic became real for all of us last March (i.e. part 1) and the second was the end of mask mandates in the last week.
It's crazy to think about spring 2020 when health experts told us not to wear masks. They, I'll grant, for the most part had good intentions and wanted to avoid panic buying of medical masks (like we've seen with toilet paper and more recently gasoline). And I can understand that, but right off the bat we were told masks weren't necessary for a respiratory virus and people saw right through it. It really would be best if they gave it to us straight for once. Not long afterward face coverings were mandated everywhere, indoors and even outdoors in places, as ordered by governors and/or local officials.
Since then we've had the mask wars, as I'll half jokingly call it. Some people wanted to make it a liberty issue and talked about, amongst other things, the lack of science proving non-medical grade masks to be a difference maker. Other people wanted to do all the policing themselves and made masks almost like an article of a strange faith. Both groups included obnoxious asses. Personally I've worn a mask when asked and constantly looked forward to the day we'd forever be done with them.
That was the problem we were approaching, how to end restrictions on businesses and individuals with the end of the pandemic. In particular how and when would masking end? Even if state governors ended their emergency orders would businesses drop the mandate themselves? I was convinced we'd be wearing masks shopping, at least where I live, in perpetuity (as opposed to Texas for example, which ended their state mandate in March).
Something had to give, and soon. Maybe vaccination rates still need to climb higher before we reach real herd immunity, especially against mutations. But we've made huge progress this year and it's being proven, through the millions of shots administered, that getting a Covid vaccine will prevent you from getting horribly ill or dying from the virus. Yes you may still test positive but that in and of itself doesn't mean much now. The result of all this had to be mounting pressure to end any remaining government mandates imposed in response to the pandemic. Most people, even if not all, want normalcy.
What we got sure seemed like a top-down political decision. While it's been clear for some time that there's little or no reason for fully vaccinated people (two weeks after their final shot) to continue to wear masks, indoors or otherwise, the CDC was still recommending it. That was until late last week anyway, because on Thursday May 13, 2021 they updated their guidance. Most governors and local authorities quickly followed suit. Going forward we're encouraged to ditch the mask, if vaccinated, with only a few exceptions like on public transportation and airplanes. It was a good decision, it just came unexpected and sudden.
We didn't need to wait long for companies to drop the mandates once free to make their own decisions. So much for the question I mentioned earlier. The day after the CDC announcement, on a Friday afternoon at that, several major retail establishments made the change and got it started. Trader Joe's was the first one I saw. Walmart must've been a watershed moment, putting pressure on everyone else. Costco too. Over the weekend Starbucks (!) came around, followed by Target Monday morning. Now all this means is people will no longer be required to wear masks to enter a store. The retailers are not going to be checking vaccine cards, instead creating a system where individuals are responsible for their own decisions. This is how it should be. Most adults are vaccinated and for all intents and purposes protected against the virus. If an unvaccinated person wants to take the risk and go maskless that's their choice. If a vaccinated person wants to continue to wear a mask they can. I'm certainly glad the onus is off businesses to enforce this stuff. Plus hopefully it will encourage at least a few of the vaccine holdouts to get that done.
But it wasn't just major retailers. Our favorite brewery in downtown Frederick, as well as other shops and restaurants just about all dropped the mask requirement over the weekend. I keep seeing more and more local companies making the change, per social media, and it's obvious the floodgates are fully open here and nationally. I'm extremely surprised with how quickly everything happened. After more than a year of masking everywhere it all ended in like a day. Even if a segment of the population is still going to mask up, the stigma appears to be gone and I witnessed plenty of people happy to take advantage.
It's weird to have hope that common sense has prevailed and we're nearly at the finish line. But for at least a moment that's how I feel. Now let's get kids back in school and pray that Covid hasn't broken people's minds forever.
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