By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
June 18, 2023
The public’s willingness to deal seriously with Covid-19, the deadliest pandemic in a century, began petering out long before the end of 2020. Some people never treated the disease as a true crisis; others weren’t willing to do so for longer than a few weeks.
The American conservative movement decided it was more important to embrace the principles of unfettered liberty than to protect life and embarked upon a series of actions with grievous consequences. By rushing to reopen businesses and schools, by opposing requirements for public masking and vaccination, and by fostering skepticism toward the effectiveness of masking, vaccines and public-health initiatives in general, the movement helped cause higher death rates among Republican voters than Democratic ones. The conservative movement’s broad-based assault on public health and science will likely make it harder to counter future disease outbreaks.
Of course, conservatives weren’t the only people who were eager to put the pandemic behind them as quickly as possible, even as the disease was killing hundreds of Americans each day. Many liberals and independents shed their masks as soon as they were allowed, and sometimes even before. I understand the impulse — masking can be awkward, and if peers aren’t masking, or if you’re ingesting even a little of right-wing media or social media that’s openly hostile toward masking, then wearing a mask may seem pointless. The truth, which is that mask usage can reduce Covid-19 spread by 10 percent or more, according to multiple studies, gets lost in the hubbub of everyday life, especially when the media and government begins focusing on other priorities.
The emergency phase of the Covid-19 pandemic officially ended on May 11. The chances that I’ll die from Covid-19 are relatively low and have been ever since I got vaccinated back in the spring of 2021. My concerns since then have mainly centered on the possibility of either contracting some form of long Covid. That’s why I mostly persist in masking in public indoor spaces, despite the fact that it’s no longer required even on airplanes (which actually tend to be well-ventilated) or in medical offices (which are frequently visited by people who are sick and/or vulnerable to disease).
While I continue masking, my attitude toward social distancing has palpably changed over the course of this spring. I’ve started going out a bit on weeknights. I keep my mask on except when I’m actively eating or drinking, as is typical for me, but I’m definitely more willing to be in moderately crowded public places than before.
I said that I have mostly persisted in masking around other people, especially indoors, but I made an exception during recent family gatherings that took place over the course of a few days. I mostly went without a mask over this stretch when I was with family and friends whom I believed to be vaccinated, responsible people. In contrast, two years ago, at an event with many of the same individuals, I kept a mask on at all times except when I was consuming food and drink.
There continue to be times when I’m grateful to have a mask on, such as when someone around me is coughing or when, as happened the other night, an air conditioner is kicking up dust in a room that’s in the middle of renovations.
In a few weeks, I’ll take a look a Covid-19 figures and try to determine if masking is still worth it in most circumstances. Unfortunately, finding helpful data may prove to be something of a challenge, for reasons that I’ll explain in my next post.
To be continued…
MEMwrites 
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