This time feels different

Re “Return to masking? No problem,” Personal Note, July 20

In many ways, though familiar, the mask debate this time feels different. For 2½ years, we have engaged in nonpharmaceutical interventions in an effort to flatten the curve until vaccines and therapeutics could come fully online. Even during the Omicron surge, therapeutics were in short supply and vaccinations for children under 5 had not been approved.

But with vaccines and COVID-19 treatments readily available, mandating masks now essentially says that mask mandates are never going away. It says this is a permanent part of the toolkit and we can expect to mask up in schools and public places on and off for the next decade.

And maybe that’s the right call, maybe it’s not, but it doesn’t feel like health authorities have been fully upfront about that this time. That’s why this mask debate feels different. For the first time, there is not even the fig leaf that this is the last one.

Nathan Meyer Los Angeles

Irfan Khan Los Angeles Times AMID A COVID-19 surge, shoppers mask up at Santee Alley in downtown L.A.’s Fashion District July 14.