Mask shaming: Illinois has reopened, but some of us are still wearing masks. How does that make you feel?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention no longer recommends that fully vaccinated people wear a mask in many situations, but masks are required on buses, planes and trains, and in hospitals, prisons, homeless shelters and businesses that require them. It’s recommended that unvaccinated people continue to wear masks in many public settings.
But seeing a mask on a friend, family member or stranger triggers some people to offer an opinion — often a negative one. A new version of mask shaming and blaming has broken out, leaving vaccinated people who intend to keep wearing masks open to ridicule.
We talked to Laurie Zoloth, a bioethicist at the University of Chicago who has advised federal health agencies and considered many of the complicated moral questions raised by the pandemic, including the prioritizing of vulnerable populations and how people can make the best individual and ethical decisions. We also talked to Dr. Mark Loafman, chair of family and community medicine for the Cook County Department of Public Health about mask shaming now that more faces are less covered. The following interviews have been condensed and edited.
Q: Have masks become politicized in this country?
Laurie Zoloth: It is odd, in a country that so values personal autonomy that people feel so critical of one’s choice, because the very people who are shaming you for wearing a mask are the same people who insisted on the right not to wear a mask, and not to be shamed for it.
It’s an interesting reversal that again signals to us who are observing it that this is just a matter of political differences playing out in the public arena. We have to have a serious discussion about kindness in America, the rapidity with which people resort to anger and upset is really quite startling.
Q: What is behind the mask shaming?
LZ: There was a moment for every one of us when we realized that we were being overcome by an extraordinarily powerful force (the pandemic) that we couldn’t control. People reacted to it in two very different ways. Some people wore a mask, saying I take this seriously, I’m in reality and I’m cautious. They have a story that involves a scientific grasp of what’s going on.
And for others, the mask served to remind them of a painful truth they would rather deny. For those people, seeing someone wearing a mask is very destabilizing, because here’s someone wearing the visible sign of catastrophe, and they don’t want to be reminded of that tragic reality.
One way to do that is to politicize it and to mock it and to make the person wearing the mask feel like they have it wrong. Then they reassert their vision of reality. That’s what’s behind the politicalization. We don’t share a vision of what America is supposed to look like in our particular history. And that’s behind many of our political fights right now: what reality your vision of America is.
You shouldn’t be shamed for not feeling like the epidemic is completely over. You could be wearing a mask because you have an autoimmune disease, or because you’re not fully vaccinated, or because you live with someone who’s health is considered fragile, or you just had surgery, or any number of health conditions that really are not anyone else’s business.
People should keep their masks handy, and a sense of humility. Understand that putting one on is not an admission of defeat or signal that you’re neurotic. It’s just a sign that you understand how profound this pandemic was and how it still represents a threat. We should be very grateful that we got this far. But we should be really humble and understand how much further we have to go.
Mark Loafman: It’s a moving target. What’s making everybody in the public health world a little bit cautious is that there are a small percentage of people that are vaccinated who will contract the infection. What we’re telling people in low-risk settings, like being outdoors, physically distanced with people that are vaccinated indoors, an outdoor dining experience, even going to the ballpark or out to a picnic event in the open, it’s generally very safe right now. It’s not 0% risk. So, if you have a loved one at home who is incredibly susceptible, those folks should continue to use the mask. We just need to get comfortable with this level of variability.
We’re advising people to have your mask and take it on or off based on the circumstances. If you’re working your way through Wrigley Field and the corridors are really crowded and relatively closed off, leave your mask on. If you get to your seat and there’s a nice breeze and you’re out in the open and you’re comfortable taking your mask off to have your lunch, snacks and drinks, then that seems reasonable if you’re vaccinated.
If you’re in a restaurant and the server comes over, have your mask on. When you’re out in the open and you’re eating, you’re not nearly as likely to have a problem. It’s not being disingenuous to do that; it’s an appropriate use of masking. And I think people need to get more comfortable with that.
