I Try to Mask. And Then Sometimes I Fail.

Public health requires public support.

I wrote this piece back in 2022…and then it was no longer online. I think the points it makes about public health and Covid are still (unfortunately) relevant though. So I’m republishing it. It is paywalled, but! There’s a 40% off sale, so you can read it (and other paywalled posts!) for just $30/year. Plus you’ll help me keep scribbling!

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We went to see The Northman this weekend. Alexander Skarsgård stomped around the screen bare-chested and bellowing, mouth open in great wolf howl after tearing out some poor soul’s throat with his teeth.

In the audience, there was less throat-tearing and bellowing, but mouths were open, or at least visible. I live in a blue city, but we’ve mostly abandoned masks. In the moderately crowded, not very well-ventilated theater, I think I was the only one wearing a face-covering. That includes my wife and daughter, who both had snacks, and didn’t bother putting masks back on when they were finished with them. I sort of thought I should tell them to wear them. But then I didn’t want to be a spoilsport and have my daughter roll her eyes at me. So I didn’t.

We’re fully vaccinated—my wife and I got the second booster shot the day after it was available—and case numbers aren’t that high. We are at significantly less risk of death and dismemberment than people who randomly crossed the path of Alexander Skarsgård and his bellowing.

Still, cases are rising, breakthrough infections do happen, and those sometimes result in long Covid—extended clusters of symptoms which can be debilitating for months, years, or a lifetime, no one really knows. Masks help prevent Covid transmission, reducing your chances of getting the disease and of spreading it. Wearing them is a little annoying, but getting long Covid is a lot worse than a little annoying. So wear masks, all of you!

“All of you” would, you’d think, include my family. If I’m going to harangue you (and you!) about wearing masks, shouldn’t I also harangue my nearest and dearest?

Or, for that matter, shouldn’t I harangue myself? I wear masks almost always when I go into stores or indoor spaces, but that “almost” is sitting there staring at me with baleful masklessness. Sometimes, occasionally, I get out of the car and into the Walgreens and realize I’m not wearing a mask.

And then, sometimes, occasionally, I’ve deliberately not worn a mask. At  the low point of the pandemic, during summer 2021, my wife and I went to Iceland. It had low case numbers and high vaccination rates, and we thought it was our chance to travel after more than a year of sitting in the house staring at the cats. Who we love. But a year is a long time.

Iceland was marvelous. But no one wore masks, anywhere, ever. After a few days, we decided when in Iceland we would do as they do in The Northman and not wear masks while cleaving our enemies in twain. Or even while doing other things, like shopping.

Anti-maskers love to point to lapses such as this to suggest that pro-maskers are hypocrites. How can you expect reluctant maskers to wear masks when even enthusiastic mask advocates don’t want to wear them in a movie theater or Walgreens or Iceland? Shouldn’t we just stop shaming other people and all take off our masks and let the virus do its worst? After all, I’ve avoided the virus so far, despite occasional failures to mask. I’ve been fine. Why shouldn’t everyone else be fine?