After COVID-19, We Should Be Allowed to Wear Masks in Public
Anti-Mask Laws Should Be Permanently Repealed
During a pandemic, we don’t have much choice but to wear face masks when we venture into public—masks protects our health, protects others’ health, and are generally required to comply with state and local mandates. This much is obvious.
But, apart from fending off the spread of COVID-19, people wear facial coverings in public for a wide variety of reasons. Children wear goblin masks to trick-or-treat. Detroit Lions fans wear paper bags on their heads in shame when their team goes 0–16. Muslim women wear the niqab or burqa as an extension of their religious and cultural practices. Bank robbers wear balaclavas to conceal their identities from cameras and thereby avoid capture. People living in cold environments wear scarves or ski masks to protect their faces from the weather. Black bloc participants don black bandanas and balaclavas before throwing bricks through the windows of banks to protest exploitative and oppressive financial practices. Baseball catchers wear masks to protect their faces from getting hit by thrown pitches. Masquerade ball-goers wear colorful masks to facilitate entertainment and revelry. Workers of various types wear masks to protect themselves against occupational hazards. And on and on.
