David Goldman/AP Photo
Travelers sit in a waiting area at Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport in Providence, Rhode Island, April 19, 2022.
The other day, I stopped into my local Whole Foods, where I occasionally (and guiltily) shop. There, on the main entrance, was a sign:
“All customers, regardless of vaccination status, may choose to shop without a mask at this location.”
What?? I had to read it twice. Donald Trump could not have said it better. Suffolk County, Massachusetts, where I live, is one of the few places in America where COVID transmission and caseload rates are currently rated “High” by the CDC.
You might imagine Whole Foods posting a notice recommending masks but not requiring masks. Or at least adjusting its policy to local COVID conditions. And the line about no vaccinations was gratuitous and malicious—a middle finger to all who take COVID seriously. Oh, and Whole Foods staff have stopped wearing masks, too.
So what’s going on here? Has Amazon’s Jeff Bezos perhaps invested in hospitals? Is he a closet Trumper?
No, what’s going on is that Amazon is just pandering to public opinion. And the public is increasingly sick of masks. People want the inconvenience of COVID to be over; so—voila!—it’s over.
Except it isn’t. And a mask in indoor spaces, along with getting vaccinated and boosted, is the best protection against contracting COVID and infecting others who may be more at risk of severe COVID than you.
Is wearing a mask really that hard? Compare it to what people just like us endure, in Ukraine.
I could tell you several stories about people who went to large indoor events—seders, dinner parties, conferences, political fundraisers—and whoops, a day or two later an email comes around: OMG, so sorry, I just tested positive. And you could tell me similar stories. And these are fricking liberal superspreaders, who should know better.
Many people, weary of the COVID years, are now gambling with their lives, and other lives, that COVID is becoming less virulent; and so if you get sick, it’s not likely to be a big deal. Except for some people, it is.
Mask aversion is prolonging the pandemic and leading to needless deaths and complications of long COVID. And the public’s impatience is also one more factor screwing the Biden administration.
Biden knows that he should be urging people to wear masks in indoor spaces, especially planes, trains, buses, and subways, and in the case of high-transmission areas in indoor restaurants as well. But Biden is leery of crossing public opinion.
In fact, according to Quinnipiac, Americans are about evenly divided on the mandatory use of masks in transportation. Democrats overwhelmingly favor a mask mandate for planes by a margin of 80-to-18. Republicans are opposed by an almost equal margin. But Quinnipiac confirms the general drift to magical thinking. Fully 74 percent of Americans say they believe COVID is under control. They are wrong.
The CDC continues to recommend the use of masks “in indoor transportation settings,” which is to say subways, buses, trains, and planes. But the mixed signals sent by the public-health authorities, mayors, governors, and school systems also leave people exasperated with their government. That’s not good for Democrats either.
In this case, speaking as a small-d democrat, what’s even more exasperating is the impatient and selfish public. Democracy is only as good as its citizens. What the hell is it with people?
