Places I’ll Still Wear a Mask From Now On

Even if/when the pandemic is over.

Mask mandates are being lifted almost everywhere. Major cities like New York and San Francisco (though not Chicago) are lifting their indoor mask mandates. Many governors are no longer requiring masks to be worn in schools. I was at the Super Bowl in Los Angeles — a city that has been as avid about mask wearing as any in the country — and found mask wearing not just inconsistent, but not particularly fretted about by much of anyone. The numbers from Omicron have fallen dramatically, and with no variant currently looming, people are relaxing. I think it’s OK to relax a bit. That doesn’t mean the pandemic is over. But the whole point of having restrictions is that you can lift them when circumstances change. Circumstances have changed. I think it’s probably time.

There may be more variants down the line, and we’ll all have to adjust accordingly, but it’s also possible that we’ve turned a corner in the pandemic, to the point that the masks don’t go back on, at least in mandated form. It’s very possible this is what we were waiting for.

If it is, though, I’m not sure I’m throwing all my masks away. Like a lot of people, I’ve noticed that while wearing masks over the last two years, I’ve been a lot less sick than I usually am — fewer colds, no flus, generally positive…