No, You Don’t Have To Go All The Way Back to Normal

Photo by Önder Örtel on Unsplash

I was reading an article the other day by somebody who is afraid to “go back to normal” and (not unreasonably) afraid that relaxing our behaviors will lead to another massive surge.

There are people who think we can never unmask in public again, and people who think we should throw our masks in the trash.

The CDC hasn’t helped by simply saying that if community risk is low, healthy people don’t need to wear masks anywhere.

All or nothing. Either mask every time you leave your home, or don’t mask.

Thing is? That’s not a great approach. The CDC makes decisions at a population level.

(And we are likely to have another surge, although I doubt it will be as bad as the last one for several reasons, which include increasing population immunity and the fact that it’s spring and people will be doing more stuff outside).

You Don’t Have To Go From 100% Mask to 0% Mask

You really don’t! That’s not how it works. What the CDC is saying is that they don’t think we need universal masking right now. That we don’t need to mask in every situation.

But, stupid laws against masks aside, you don’t need to throw away your mask.