It’s been interesting to watch the reaction on the Left to the CDC’s new guidance on masks, with some states declaring that no longer will they “trust the science” coming out of the government agency and will keep their own restrictions in place for at least several more weeks. Some fully-vaccinated individuals are even saying they’ll continue wearing masks indefinitely, even though the vaccines offer far more protection than the masks themselves.

Masks have become a tribal totem for some on the Left and a security blanket for others, but for Chicago Tribune columnist Dahleen Glanton, they fact that they’re going to become less common in the weeks ahead makes her wonder how she’ll be able to trust those around her.

Are we supposed to assume that everyone we encounter who isn’t wearing a mask is fully vaccinated?

Does that mean we no longer have to tell the maskless person standing on our heels in the grocery store checkout line to step back?

 

Yes, it’s true. So why aren’t we celebrating? Why is everyone so wary?

 

It’s because the government is asking us to trust our fellow Americans. We don’t.

 

Biden’s chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, admitted on CNN that there’s no way for businesses such as restaurants and airlines, or anyone, to know whether someone has been vaccinated.

 

“You’re going to be depending on people being honest enough to say whether they were vaccinated or not and responsible enough to be wearing a mask not only for their own protection but the protection of others,” he said.

 

Certainly, the government isn’t naive enough to think that everyone who hasn’t been vaccinated will either stay at home or put on a mask when they go out. How could it expect us to trust the people who insist that COVID-19 is a hoax?

Why does it matter? If you’re vaccinated, the chances of you being infected are low, and the risk of serious illness or death is almost zero. Of course you can’t trust that everyone walking around without a mask has been vaccinated, but then again, when have you ever been able to trust total strangers?

Glanton lives in the Chicago area, where 48 people were shot this past weekend. Does Glanton trust that every person she encounters on a city street is a law-abiding, responsible individual? If so, why? That’s clearly not reality in the city she calls home, yet I’m pretty sure that despite the risks, Glanton still ventures outside her residence to shop, eat, and to hang out with friends, even though it exposes her to some level of danger every time her feet hit the sidewalk.

Don’t they know that many of the holdouts are the very people who don’t care about catching COVID-19 or passing it to others? Don’t they understand that you can’t expect unvaccinated people to be honest about their status?

 

Obviously, there are lots of questions about the revised mask guidelines handed down last week. It’s not that Americans haven’t been looking forward to returning to normal; we’re just not sure the country is ready.

 

We didn’t expect the new freedom to arrive so suddenly. We thought we’d be able to ease back into normality at our own pace.

Good lord. Being able to walk around without a mask isn’t a “new freedom.” It’s the status quo, or at least it was until China unleashed the COVID-19 virus on the world. And if Glanton doesn’t want to participate in the return to normalcy, it’s her right to keep wearing a mask, even though she’s been fully vaccinated. There’s nothing stopping her or anyone else from “easing back” into normality at her own pace, regardless of what the CDC says. There’s also nothing stopping unvaccinated people from walking around without a mask, which has also been the case for a year now.

Tomorrow marks two weeks since I received my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine, and I’m not going to be masking up when I go grocery shopping or hanging out with friends. My vaccinated wife, on the other hand, will likely continue wearing a mask, at least in large public settings, because of her compromised immune system. Both of us will be exercising our freedom of choice and making informed decisions, which includes our knowledge that yes, there’ll be plenty of people who haven’t been vaccinated who will be discarding their masks as well.

If Glanton is this concerned about the dangers of unmasked strangers, she really ought to consider the other potential risks that strangers pose to her safety, particularly in crime-ridden Chicago. If she’s willing to wear a mask for her continued protection, is she willing to obtain a concealed carry license and carry a firearm for self-defense as well? After all, she’ll never know what evils might lurk in the hearts of those around her, and a gun would be much more effective in protecting her against violent criminals than a mask will be in protecting her vaccinated self from the coronavirus.