We Cannot Keep Masking Post-Pandemic

Peace of mind can never be achieved if masks outside of a pandemic are normalized.

This is a reader contribution from M.D.

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Masking in indoor public places has been a reasonable precaution, among many, during the pandemic during times when community spread is high. In particular, frontline health care workers need appropriately fitted PPE to safely treat COVID patients. But I am getting increasingly worried about suggestions in the media and social media that we must, or at least ought to, continue to wear masks after the pandemic phase is over, be it on transit, during winter, or in crowds. I won’t do it.

Personally, the pandemic has been the greatest mental health challenge of my life. And I need, at some point, relief, ease and peace of mind. I need to be able to step into a subway car, a restaurant or a stadium without thinking about respiratory illness. I don’t agree that peace of mind can be achieved if masks outside of a pandemic are normalized.

I really don’t think post-pandemic masking supporters have thought through the psychosocial impact of dedicating normal life to dodging aerosols, or of viewing fellow human beings as dangerous or disgusting. And even if social cohesion isn’t shredded by viewing each other as viral vectors, masking to avoid colds and flus is simply doomed to fail. Even if one masks on sidewalks and buses, can anyone really avoid prolonged close contact with their loved ones, from whom we contract most of our illnesses?

I agree that ventilation can be improved in our buildings, to the extent that it promotes overall health. But other “new normal” proposals such as seasonal or situational masking have downsides that outweigh any benefits. I know some have talked about how much they enjoy not having contracted colds or flus this past winter, but masks alone are not likely to provide similar immunity in a future where COVID is competing less aggressively in the populace with other viruses, and without the unquestionably unsustainable non-pharmaceutical interventions like distancing, lockdowns and travel bans. 

I’d also note that while the mass media has disproportionately fixated on “vaccine breakthrough infections,” which affect a negligible percentage of vaccinated people and are almost never severe, they have been oddly disinterested in “mask breakthrough infections.” One would think these would be vastly more common and more serious, given serious ICU waves during periods of very high mask compliance. But we have learned very little about when, how, why and through what types of mask people nevertheless contract serious cases of COVID. It’s part and parcel of the sense of received wisdom that “new normal” measures can’t be questioned, and that infections must be the fault of the “misbehaving” public. We cannot let this counterproductive moralization of infectious disease spread to other illnesses beyond COVID (and, in prior years, HIV).

Rather than masking in the future, let’s take care of vulnerable people by staying home when we are sick. Let’s trust the vaccines and take a badly needed permanent break from obsessing over viral particles. And let’s all be honest that the old normal with the occasional cold and flu is preferable to dystopia.