âI will be wearing my mask indoors, unless Iâm eating in a well-ventilated restaurant, but if Iâm going shopping or whatever, I will be wearing my mask,â said Laur Kim, 21, who is currently a student.
Now some believe mask-wearing in America may also stretch beyond the immediate pandemic. Motivated by a range of reasons â from confusion and distrust of the CDC guidelines to newly appreciated health benefits of mask-wearing â some vaccinated people have decided to continue wearing a mask for now, with many planning to incorporate masks into their post-pandemic way of life.
Wearing masks has been heralded as a needed tool to limit the transmission of Covid-19, especially as research early in the pandemic showed asymptomatic people could spread the virus. Yet, despite their importance, mask mandates have been a repeated source of contention in the US, prompting protests and regular clashes between âanti-maskersâ and those enforcing mask mandates
Guardian
May 22, 2021 3:05 PM ET
“[With the pandemic], you’re thinking more about others and protecting others. A lot of my peers feel that way and I hope that that’s a lesson that we [all] get out of this pandemic,” said Ella Knibb, 20, who is a student.
Zhiyeng Zhu, 26, a PhD student, doesn’t plan on wearing a mask outside, but has noted that he will continue wearing them in hospitals, around the elderly and around other masked people. “If there’s social pressure, where you’re entering into a space with lots of people wearing masks, you might want to avoid conflict and then you have to wear [a] mask,” said Zhu.