The New Yorker:

Last Tuesday, shortly after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued relaxed guidelines for wearing masks in public during the COVID-19 pandemic, President Joe Biden gave a speech on the North Lawn of the White House. The setting was so verdant—bright sunlight, tall trees framing a lectern, shrubbery in full bloom—that it might have been a virtual Zoom background. Biden wore a black mask to the lectern, then took it off to speak. “If you’re in a crowd, like in a stadium or at a concert, you still need to wear a mask, even if you’re outside,” he said. “But, beginning today, gathering with a group of friends in the park, going for a picnic, as long as you are vaccinated and outdoors, you can do it without a mask.” He described the chance to avoid masking up outdoors as a reason to get a vaccine, and cited it as a giant step for the nation in its drive to gain “independence from the virus” by the Fourth of July. After the speech, he put on dark aviator sunglasses and went back into the White House, leaving the mask behind.

The United States, as a society, is far from leaving masks behind. Most of public life takes place indoors (on subways and buses, in offices and schools, in big-box stores and houses of worship), and the outdoor gatherings most dramatically suspended because of the pandemic—concerts and sporting events—are those where mask wearing is still strongly recommended. The coronavirus may surge back, owing to the persistence of variant strains or a sharp uptick in travel this summer. Even if we reach herd immunity, with seventy per cent of the population vaccinated—something that currently seems unlikely—many of us will keep a mask handy, like a pair of sunglasses, and wear it as the situation demands.

Go to link