One of the last times I walked outside my Brooklyn apartment without a mask was in the early spring of 2020, just before the state issued a mask mandate. I remember because when my dog was peeing on a tree, a neighbor asked me exactly where my mask was. Where I live, almost everyone wears a mask when they go outside. If someone pulls off an iced coffee sip with his mask, approaches someone else on the sidewalk who is coming the other way around, then he will usually pull the mask up again, as if they are partially clothed. The other day I noticed a woman with a covered face sitting on a hill in the middle of a field. There was no one near her.
It has been feeling a bit unnecessary for a while now, if this is understandable, as we have yet to learn things about the virus and try to be as careful as possible. But now, as we learn more about the virus, as vaccinations increase, and as we try to figure out how to coexist in a sustainable way with a certain amount of COVID and disguise outside if you have the crossing people with at most is barely beginning to feel understandable. Look: I believe that masks (and even shame) are indispensable to control the spread of the coronavirus. Despite early waffle support, public health experts virtually unanimously supported them and remained so, even as our early commitment to scrubbing surfaces and Cloroxing vegetables declined.
In other words, as the pandemic progressed, so did our understanding of the safety measures that are most useful and not worth the alcohol cloths. And I want to calmly suggest that now is the time to consider not wearing more masks as we walk outside.
“You talk about the likelihood of being hit by a car and struck by lightning.”
– Zain Chagla, a doctor for infectious diseases
I do not expose it simply because I am very sick of wearing a mask outside my house at all times. As for the spread of coronavirus, evidence shows that it is very safe to be outdoors. A paper published in Indoor Air looked at 1,245 cases in China and found only one case of outdoor transmission, in which people had conversations, meaning they had to be apart and face to face for some time. According to data from the Health Protection Surveillance Center, which was shared with the Irish Times earlier this month, 232 of 162 cases in Ireland are only 262 associated with ‘places mainly related to outdoor activities’. That is, about 0.1 percent. A meta-analysis published online in the Journal of Infectious Diseases in November suggests that the upper limit of cases that can be contracted outdoors is higher; it estimates that the total is less than 10 percent. When I called Nooshin Razani, an author of the report and an associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco, she emphasized that the actual number of cases of outpatient transmission was “probably lower” than ten percent. , as the cases she and her team counted were sometimes obscure: cases that occurred on construction sites, or summer camps where people shared stacked trees. That is, these scenarios probably also involved indoor time. They also tended to involve people who spent time over a period of days. “Most of the cases that took place outdoors had something to do with the circumstances that you could point to and say, ‘It was a risk,'” Razani says. Only one case ran with runners – who ran together. Still, Razani said she can not comment on whether it’s OK to go maskless on a sidewalk where you can mostly, but not perfectly, keep your distance from others. In an article in National Geographic by science writer Tara Haelle, other experts note that we do have information that the outdoors is very safe, and yet, if you can not give up, even briefly, you may want to pull up your mask, partly out of respect, and also just to be safe.
I must say: I do not agree! It is true that nothing is 100 percent safe. But because COVID is little particles floating through the air, the outdoors is very, very safe. Anything you exhale will only dilute quickly, especially if you move around. Yes, the coronavirus can spread in other ways. As Razani said, “Being right next to someone and spitting on them outdoors will not magically protect you from their spit.” But the remark illustrates that the risk of getting COVID if you fall short inside someone’s foot is so small that you have to be almost purposeful in exchanging fluids. Zain Chagla, a doctor at Infectious Diseases at McMaster University, recently wrote a headline in the Toronto Star pointing out that last summer’s outdoor events coincided with an everyday number of cases in the city. Although it is important to disguise yourself in the outside or when hanging out near to someone in a park, Chagla explains, the main message should be that the outdoors is a safe place to be. He gave me a rough sense of how unlikely the transfer from outside is in the scenario where you walk unmasked on the sidewalk and briefly pass by someone. First, you or the person passing you by must have an asymptomatic infection, he explained and dan everyone will have to exhale and inhale only the right moment, and also to exchange enough particles to cause another infection: ‘You talk about the likelihood of being hit by a car and struck by lightning.’
Why then is it still officially considered the best practice to do what Monica Gandhi, a doctor on infectious diseases at UCSF, says “becomes almost ridiculous” as vaccinations increase? Or we always wear masks outside has become a combination of politics and local attitude towards the virus – not science. Early in the pandemic, wearing a mask became a symbol that you took the virus seriously and were willing to listen to public health officials; not wearing one was a symbol that you value personal freedoms and, oddly enough, the President of the United States. And maybe, in the beginning of the pandemic, it made sense to decorate as much as possible – we were in an emergency and it was appropriate to indicate to each other that we all understand the seriousness of this virus. But masks should not be a blunt safety statement; we have to accept their nuanced use, starting with the idea that in some settings they can be too much outdoors. This is especially true for people who have been fully vaccinated, and for whom wearing a mask in an already very low-risk environment is more evidence of participation in the pandemic society than a medical necessity. “What I’m saying is really heterodox in San Francisco,” said Gandhi, who has written several articles on the importance of masks. “If you’re not wearing a mask, everyone is glaring at you.” But she noticed that on a recent trip to Austin, Texas, she saw many masks inside, but not really outside. Such a world was possible. “I was so fascinated – I was like, you know what, it’s consistent with biology.”
Gandhi believes that there should be a clear threshold where cities with outside mask mandates lift themselves completely. The threshold could be 10 hospitalizations per 100,000 people, she suggests, with 40 percent of the people receiving their first vaccine dose. (She based it in part on a piece she co-wrote for the Washington Post.) With the potential standard in mind, Gandhi wrote in a follow-up email: “Many states can do it now!” To be clear, the choice of when to do this should not be based on the quick calculation of one person; her point and mine is that public health officials would do well to figure out a scientific way to alleviate the mask restrictions where they make sense, without lifting them altogether. And the cautious souls who live in places where there are no mandates should consider going for a walk with their neighbors without masks. Gandhi also thinks that adapting the recommendation will help instill more confidence in public health officials by letting people know that they are not being asked to take arbitrary precautions. She says she wrote to the San Francisco Department of Public Health in her capacity as a mask researcher and asked for more nuanced guidance for outdoor masking, but did not hear it.
Although I am not interested in violating the social norms of my city – especially while our affairs are still high, our collective agreement to obsessively disguise the outdoors is a prize. Masking can be exhausting. It makes relaxation really annoying, especially when the weather gets hot. This makes it difficult, even temporarily, to escape the pandemic. It deprives us of seeing each other’s smiles! I am aware that these are also arguments used by those who reject all masking, even indoors. But the point is that masking should not be to indicate which side you are on; it should be about using a tool in response to risk. Be too vigilant about masks when they are not important make it harder to keep it if they is. I’m also afraid it’s making us look a little ridiculous.