Masks: right then, and now

Wearing a face mask to avoid spreading the coronavirus always made sense.

It made sense when the public health authorities were actually telling people not to wear masks. It made sense when they said it was OK to wear a mask, but not particularly important. And it makes sense now that they’re saying wearing a mask in an enclosed public space isn’t just important, it should be mandatory.

That’s the new message in two of the country’s most populated centres, Toronto and Peel Region, which also happen to be among the areas most heavily hit by COVID-19.

As they move into “Stage 2” of reopening society, city councils there are adopting bylaws making it compulsory to wear a mask or face covering in all public indoor spaces, such as stores and malls, effective July 7.

This is pretty much common sense. As more people emerge from lockdown and start resuming something like normal life, for which we should all be profoundly grateful, there’s a bigger chance that we’ll end up rubbing elbows with other people — and possibly inhaling their virus-laden droplets.

There’s not much we can do about this; it’s part and parcel of moving around in crowded cities. But one simple thing we can do is to mask up, and the more of us who do that when we find ourselves in close proximity to others, the better.

We won’t breathe on them, and they won’t breathe on us. It’ll be that much harder for the virus, which travels on exhaled droplets, to spread.

It isn’t a lot more complicated than that, and yet the politicians and public health officials have navigated a twisty path to get here.

We were well into the pandemic, early April in fact, when they finally stopped telling people not to wear masks when out in public. They worried that wearing a face covering would be seen as a substitute for handwashing and social distancing, not an extra precaution.

That advice changed in April, when Canada’s chief medical officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, allowed as how wearing a mask could be useful as long as we did all those other things. And didn’t use a medical-grade mask at a time when they were scarce.

As society started to reopen, calls for mandatory mask laws grew louder. But as recently as mid-June Toronto Mayor John Tory and the city’s top medical officer, Dr. Eileen de Villa, resisted those calls, saying the city didn’t have the power to adopt such a law.

Now, this week, Toronto and Peel Region (including the cities of Mississauga and Brampton) are passing bylaws making wearing a mask in an enclosed public space mandatory.

That’s fine, smart in fact. But it really isn’t necessary for the politicians and health officials to keep telling us they’re just “following the science.” That’s been the message all along, even as the recommendations keep changing.

In fact, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of science to follow. De Villa acknowledges as much. “The science on masks is not definitive and it continues to evolve,” she said in a lengthy statement recommending that Toronto go ahead with a mandatory-mask rule.

And, indeed, the argument she puts forward is based not on any conclusive new medical studies but on a commonsense reading of the social realities on the ground and a sense of what the public wants and will put up with.

The reality on the ground is that more and more people are out and about, as we would wish at this stage of the reopening. That will only increase as more businesses return to full operations and important institutions, such as schools, start back up.

At the same time, people feel vulnerable. They want to feel protected and they want to do something to avoid the dreaded “second wave.” Wearing a mask around others is the best available thing on both counts.

So by all means, follow the new rules and wear a mask when you’re out shopping or travelling. But don’t do it for fear of the law. Do it for yourself and for your neighbours.

As society started to reopen, calls for mandatory mask laws grew louder