Gov. Larry Hogen announced yesterday that Marylanders are no longer required to wear masks to help stop the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the highly contagious virus that causes COVID-19.
From the Baltimore Sun:
Earlier this week, the Republican announced that the state is rolling back most other pandemic business restrictions, also effective Saturday. Restaurants and bars can now resume normal operations, including allowing patrons to stand in bar areas, dropping the 6-foot distance between tables and removing barriers between booths.
COVID-19 is still nothing to mess with
The masking requirement was never enforced where I live. People here ignored the requirement as though it didn’t apply to them. Thanks to Gov. Larry Hogan, now it doesn’t.
It seems like a weird thing to do, considering SARS-CoV-2 is still highly contagious. The variant versions are even more contagious. People are still getting extremely ill with COVID-19. Our next-door neighbors have been in intensive care for well over a month with COVID-19. They were finally taken off ventilators but are getting transferred to a rehab center before they’re allowed to go home. COVID-19 is still nothing to mess with.
Sheri and I are both fully vaccinated. She got the Moderna vaccine. I got the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Sadly, we’re in the minority. A majority of Marylanders are not fully vaccinated. The U.S. 2020 Census reported that Maryland’s population is 6,177,224. According to the state’s COVID-19 Vaccination Dashboard, 2,532,586 people are fully vaccinated. That works out to be 40.1%, nowhere near enough people to reach herd immunity.
SARS-CoV-2 is still a novel virus
There’s still a lot we don’t know about the SARS-CoV-2 virus. It’s a novel virus. We also don’t know the longtime health effects involved with having COVID-19. We have no plans to stop wearing our KN-95 masks. Why would we? Even though we’re vaccinated, we can still get COVID-19. It just won’t be as severe as someone who is not vaccinated. Okay, sure. Will this still be true a year from now? We’re not banking on the fact that we’re vaccinated to save us from SARS-CoV-2.
Wearing a mask never bothered me. I was never one of those who thought wearing a mask was an infringement of my civil liberties. Requiring people to wear pants when out public isn’t at odds with the U.S. Constitution. Why should wearing a mask during a pandemic be any different?
It’s not.