The latest news from the CDC - that vaccinated people don't need to wear masks outdoors or even indoors, whether interacting with other vaccinated people or with unvaccinated people - is confounding. The masks which we were expecting to continue to wear for the benefit of others aren't needed after all; the unvaccinated can still get infected and infect each other, but we vaccinated people aren't likely to be vectors for it. Still, it's confusing. I don't like masking, but I understand it as a visible commitment to the common good. I don't like looking like I put my own convenience over the health of others, don't want to seem to be encouraging such behavior, don't want to produce incentives for people to put themselves at risk so as not to stand out.
And this is happening as pretty much every other part of the world is suffering from new waves of infection, going back into lockdowns, testing the limits of hospital systems, etc. Going "back to normal" seems obtuse in this context, even callous, but then our normal has never extended that far beyond our privileged selves (even in our own country). Part of the normal I bristle at being urged to return to is that it is one in which I unthinkingly feel invulnerable to the hazards haunting human life in most times and places, and just as unthinkingly accept that others remain subject to them. But I can feel the habit of that invulnerability returning, the caution attending every imagined encounter pre-vaccination a fuzzy memory, almost an embarrassment.
Does that mean I'll keep wearing a mask? In many cases it's still required - public transportation, at the discretion of shop owners, etc - so I'll still have one along at all times. But encountering others when walking outside I may still mask up as a sign of respect and concern... anf humility.
