Not quite ready to put away masks?
Some vaccinated wearing them for personal reasons
By Alison Bowen
Now that Illinois is in phase five, fewer and fewer businesses are requiring masks, and faces — bare faces — are everywhere. Yet some people plan to keep masks around.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance for unvaccinated people is that they should keep wearing masks in addition to social distancing. The unvaccinated also should wear masks any time they are traveling, in public settings or when around people who don’t live in their household.
But some vaccinated people who will keep wearing masks have personal reasons for keeping mouths and noses covered. They range from having immunocompromised family members to simply having enjoyed a year of not getting as many colds as in years past. Some people plan to keep masking in transit areas in hopes of avoiding all germs from fellow travelers. Others said they have family or friends in health care who have always worn face coverings and plan to follow their lead.
According to a May 25 Ipsos poll, fewer than half of Americans surveyed, 45%, said they were wearing masks at all times when leaving the home, down from 58% of people in a similar survey released weeks earlier. Also in that survey, most Americans said they did not trust people outside of their close circle to be honest about their vaccination status. Just 24% said they would trust people at an airport, for example, to be honest about their status.
University of Chicago bioethicist Laurie Zoloth said masks have become symbols, and that some people are being shamed after mask-wearing became politicized. She said that keeping a mask handy is a sign someone understands the pandemic was profound and is still a threat.
Dr. Michelle Prickett, who was on the front lines treating some of the most severely ill COVID-19 patients last year, plans to keep hers on in the clinic and in other areas, like airplanes.
“The need for masking to reduce transmission of COVID-19 has demonstrated how well masking works to prevent other common viruses, such as flu,” she said. “Masks not only improve my health but also protects my patients and those that are medically vulnerable.”
What about potential downsides? Some might wonder if wearing masks more often than not can impact our susceptibility to germs.
Dr. Sindhura Bandi, an allergy and immunology specialist and associate professor of medicine and pediatrics with Rush University Medical Center, said that social distancing and masking will not weaken the immune system.
“By adulthood, we have come into contact with many types of viruses and bacteria,” she said. “Our immune system has created memory to these pathogens, so that when we come into contact with them, we can make antibodies to fight off the disease.”
Vaccines are important for novel pathogens, like COVID-19, she noted.
Wearing masks may add social burdens for some; researchers at Canada’s University of Waterloo recently found that people with social anxiety, who already may have difficulty detecting social cues or worry about sounding incomprehensible or awkward, might find these issues magnified during interactions while wearing masks.
The researchers also noted that masks can function as a concealment strategy for people with social anxiety, who may prefer to use them for this reason.
But for some people, like Stacy and Joseph Hillenburg, wearing masks is the way to keep their family safe.
Even though they and their daughters are vaccinated, their son, who is 9 and a heart transplant recipient, is not.
Stacy Hillenburg said many people may not be vaccinated but also will not wear a mask inside stores or restaurants. “This leaves my son very vulnerable,” she said.
“We’ve been wearing them wherever we go,” she said, including a recent trip to the hairdresser and to the grocery store.
“If we could trust that everyone was doing their part and actually only vaccinated people were the ones without masks, and everyone else was wearing masks, we would probably feel a little safer,” she added. “But as for right now, we keep our masks on to protect him.”