It’s been about a week since the CDC said you no longer have to wear a mask outdoors if you are fully vaccinated. I did that to full effect this past weekend visiting Fresno. The only time I wore a mask on that trip was when I had to enter indoors into establishments. A few times I even I forgot I had to, so freeing it is to be finally without masks when walking around.
Back home in San Francisco, I find myself still wearing a mask when I am outdoors. It’s purely for convenience: since I need to wear a mask when I go to campus, it’s less hassle to just have it on already. The less chance my hands touch my face, the better. The same goes when I go grocery shopping, or visiting the local shops. When I know I’ll be indoors soon enough, I keep my mask on at all times - even when I am outside.
Obviously, if I’m just going out on a hike, that’s different.
I’ve been seeing on twitter people wondering why folks are still wearing masks outdoors, especially those who are vaccinated. Don’t these people trust the science of very low risk of outside transmission in the open air? Why the performative mask wearing still, even after the vaccine?
And I thought we are a country of live and let live! Who gives a crap if someone is still wearing a masks outdoors even after the CDC dropped the mandate? Is it bothering you? So long as they are not in turn hassling people for not wearing a mask, then who the heck cares? I’m sure that like me, these people have their own reasons. Perhaps they live with people who are vulnerable, or perhaps they themselves have respiratory issues that are totally unrelated to COVID-19.
Something tells me people are going to make fun of Asians for our habitual mask wearing that long predates the coronavirus. I hope I am wrong on this, of course. I still plan to wear masks - though not nearly as often - long after this pandemic is over: it’s something I’ve done for awhile (especially when I travel). Masks are quite handy in area of huge crowds, or at work when a coworker is sick during flu season.
One more benefit to mask wearing: no more chapped lips!
Cultural clues.