By Alma Lizarraga
Official mask mandates were controversial from the start, but masks should continue to be worn despite changes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines. Masks should be worn as long as they have to and not just until June 15, when the mandate ends. They should even be further implemented into our lifestyles.
This mandate aims to reopen the economy and would greatly decrease the amount of restrictions on not wearing a mask.
Getting used to wearing masks should not be linked to the stresses of social distancing, and should be thought of as the go-to thing to do when there’s a flu or if a person has a minor cold.
People should also be prepared to wear one outside for the remainder of the time needed to squash the COVID-19 spread.
The U.S. should work on people being prepared to wear a mask whenever a situation might arise, and for as long as it should take.
The United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention has said easing up conditions on masks would be acceptable, but most in-place regulations differ depending on the country.
At the moment, June 15 should lead to a great change in how strongly wearing masks will be implemented.
This would mean with certain regulations mask mandates would loosen to eventually mean no more masks.
There have been mixed messages over the continued use of masks now that the population has started being vaccinated, and due to protests at the beginning of the pandemic it should be obvious some people will be upset by having to wait until June 15.
During the worst of the pandemic, we saw first-hand how difficult it is to keep up with regulations. There were protests against the mask mandates, many documented incidents of California’s elites breaking guidelines for parties, travels or just unsafe work accommodations.
This showshow uneducated we were in proper pandemic etiquette because, for many, the idea of masks was insane even when many other countries’ residents have been known to take them up when they have simple colds.
Of course no one could have seen how the COVID-19 pandemic would affect the world and how long it’d last.
The pushback against a lot of regulations as well as the confusing difficult government updates, made everything a lot harder to swallow something as simple as wearing a mask outdoors became linked to conspiracy theories.
People are wanting to go back to normal as soon as possible and wanting the situation with the pandemic to be “fixed,” and lifting masks would help greatly with that.
The lift would also be linked to being able to spend more time being in closer contact with friends and family, which is a genuine need.
With masks we prevent diseases, and as a country we tend to show up to work even when we are sick with colds, especially lower class workers.
If we normalize wearing masks instead of seeing it as a crutch, we would deal with illnesses a lot better.It’s still a huge gamble lifting restrictions for those who have been vaccinated, as anyone can claim so in public and the spread will continue.
Masks protect people from viruses and germs and even if it’s entirely unlikely there will be a pandemic this large again, it’s still important to be prepared and take some precaution, especially if it has to do with reevaluating what we’ve been doing in the past.