Will CT residents be willing to wear masks again?
As the country faces another COVID surge, fueled by the highly contagious delta variant, some health experts are advising people — regardless of vaccination status — to wear masks again.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House’s chief medical advisor, told CNN on Sunday that revising national mask guidance is under “active consideration.”
In California, Los Angeles County became the first area to reinstate a mask mandate for everyone.
In Connecticut, where the daily COVID positivity rate eclipsed 2 percent twice last week and hospitalizations have begun to rise again, Gov. Ned Lamont has not yet indicated any plans to reinstate a mask requirement.
Whether Connecticut residents will comply with another mask mandate is an “extremely complicated” question, according to Dr. Jeffrey Deitz, assistant professor of psychiatry at Quinnipiac University.
Deitz he expects reactions to a possible return of the mask requirement to vary wildly, based on the individual.
“Will people follow this? Some people will, but other people won’t do it,” Deitz said. “Not everybody feels the rules apply to them.”
Under an honor system, the state’s mask mandate was largely dropped for vaccinated people, while those who have not been
vaccinated are supposed to continue wearing masks indoors.
Dr. Ajay Kumar, chief clinical officer for Hartford Healthcare, said he believes Connecticut residents will “want to do the right thing” if they are required to wear masks again.
“I think there would be some reaction, but I still have tremendous belief in Connecticut residents — generally, by and large — that they want to do the right thing,” he said. “So if for some unforeseen reason we have to go there, then I imagine ... our state
would comply better than most.”
But Kumar also said he doesn’t think Connecticut needs to reinstate the mask requirement yet and instead should focus on vaccinations.
About 72 percent of Connecticut’s eligible population are fully vaccinated, according to data tracked by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
However, the vaccination rate varies widely across the state.
In Salisbury, Lyme, Old Saybrook and Kent, more than 80 percent of residents
have received at least a first dose, according to state data, while nearly all of Canaan’s residents have been vaccinated.
Meanwhile, some of the state’s largest cities, including Hartford, Bridgeport and Waterbury, continue to lag behind.
Lora Rae Anderson, a spokeswoman for Lamont’s Chief Operating Officer Josh Geballe, said the state will “continue to rely on our residents to do the right thing,” including wearing masks on public transit and in medical facilities as well as following other public health recommendations.
“Just because we have made significant progress in combating the COVID-19 pandemic, doesn't mean we can toss basic public health best practices we should always be using out the window,” she said in an email. “People following both mandated rules, and public health recommendations between now and the fall will dictate where we end up, and what choices we need to make.”
Lamont has expressed reluctance about reinstating restrictions.
“I don’t think we need a lot of new mandates right now ... I feel like we are in a different situation. But I will watch it, if I see a steep curve, especially with hospitalizations. That’s the metric I follow,” Lamont said last week.
Kumar said his general sense is that people are fatigued by the pandemic — and he said that’s understandable.
But at the same time, “our people have been respectful and supportive — largely — of what needs to be done,” he said. “I have a lot of faith in our society.”
Dr. Carl Mueller, president of Stamford Hospital’s medical staff, was somewhat less optimistic. He said it’s human nature to resist being told what to do. Mueller said it’s particularly difficult in this situation, where a lot of people were looking forward to an “end” to the pandemic once the vaccines were available.
“This has been going on for a year and a half and people are starting to get tired, there’s no question,” said Mueller, who is also associate chair of psychiatry at Stamford Hospital. “Once the vaccines came out, this wave of hope came through.”
Asking people to go back to masks now is “appealing to the common good,” Mueller said, and their reserves of goodwill and community spirit might be draining.
And some may be letting their guard down, said Alvin Tran, University of New Haven assistance professor of public health.
“Regardless of the reinstated mask mandates and constant calls for vaccination, people need to have higher perceived susceptibility and severity of COVID-19,” he said. “In other words, they need to believe they’re at really high risk of not only becoming infected, but also falling gravely ill due to the infection. The threat of COVID-19, such as symptoms, hospitalization, and death, needs to prompt those currently unvaccinated to take action.”
Tran said more people need to take the pandemic seriously, particularly those still unvaccinated and unmasked.
“This suggests to me they don’t believe COVID-19 is a big threat to them, which is deeply concerning,” he said. “With the new COVID-19 variant circulating the country so profusely, we need to focus our public health messaging on it.”