OK, we all know the drill.
In 2020, when masks were being required by state or local orders or by businesses that were balancing safety and availability during the coronavirus pandemic, it was something new for everyone.
Masks are not something that really had been an issue in the United States because of an outbreak since the influenza pandemic more than 100 years ago. While they have popped up periodically in Asian nations for bouts of bird flu or severe pollution, Americans have been spared the wider impact of those issues, until covid-19.
It made for confusion and more than a little pushback as masks became the visible symbol of the pandemic. They were a symbol of safety for some and a symbol of oppression for others. More than a few store managers and minimum-wage workers were placed in the unenviable position of enforcing rules they didn’t make.
Masking was lifted in June in Pennsylvania as the number of people testing positive was falling and the number becoming vaccinated rose.
So what now? How have we gotten to a place where masks are back in some places and the debate over them is returning in others?
The problem is that this was always a possibility and was discussed as such from the beginning. When masking was lifted, people were urged — by the Centers for Disease Control, by the federal government, by the state — to still be careful.
A new wave was always a threat. The delta variant has proved more transmissible than the original covid-19 and earlier strains. While the vaccines are doing what was promised, radically reducing the number of hospitalizations and deaths among those who get them, breakthrough infections are a possibility, and those who have been vaccinated can still transmit the disease to others.
That means the rationale behind a mask remains the same as it did in 2020. The point of wearing common cloth masks is not to act as a shield for yourself but as a way of protecting others. The popular slogan then remains valid: “My mask protects you, your mask protects me.”
PPG Paints Arena is asking patrons to wear them, and so is Giant Eagle — as strong requests, not absolute mandates. Expect many indoor venues where strangers are sharing the air to do the same.
This isn’t new this time. There is no reason to have this be the fight that it was last time.
