Something I’ve been thinking about with the recent debates over the CDC recommendations.
Many folks are declaring that they’ll keep masking for personal reasons, such as living with vulnerable family members or being nervous about the vaccine not being a guarantee. And that’s great; that’s actually what freedom is all about.
But suppose someone is completely confident in the vaccine working and don’t have responsibility for an unvaccinated household member. Once they are immune, do they still have any moral or social obligation or responsibility to keep masking if they wouldn’t otherwise?
In other words, where would you put a fully vaccinated person who doesn’t mask on a scale of “isolating at home with no outside contact” to “Trump supporter”?
I would say there is little reason for a vaccinated person to keep masking, given what I’ve most recently read about the liklihood of them catching the virus or carrying it to others. It has been a couple weeks since I last read on that, though. Obviously, as new information comes out, they should react to new information accordingly. But just because the virus is out there, doesn’t mean they are likely to catch or transmit it. Obviously, it’s not a zero percent chance, but neither is the risk for anything else they might catch (or might have caught and brought home before this), and the risk is quite low for the vaccinated in regards to becoming infected or carrying the disease, as far as we know, though some may choose to wait out of an abundance of caution.
I completely understand and support anyone who wants to continue masking for whatever reason. It don’t agree that not doing so is in any sense immoral.
Obviously, if we find out the risk is higher (and on which vaccine given), that changes the landscape. The lack of firm details is the biggest X factor, because of the newness of all of this. But to me acting in accord with rates turning out to be “most likely scenario” instead of “worst case scenario” is an entirely reasonable reaction in this case. It isn’t the absolute safest, but all things are tradeoffs, and this isn’t one that at this point seems reasonable.
And the less at risk household members are or the more they take chances themselves, the less increased risk not masking brings to housemates once one is vaccinated.
[ First of all, on the question of whether you really are safe - keep a close eye on what’s happening with variants, where there is still considerable uncertainty about breakthrough rates for serious disease. Personally, for my own safety I will still be wearing an N95 (which protects me) any time I have to be in any enclosed space breathing the same air as unknown strangers. Ironically, the CDC policy change makes me more cautious about this for the next few months, because it will likely accelerate the inevitable spread of variants in the U.S. ]
But to accept your hypothetical and answer the question - no, vaccinated people certainly have no such moral or social obligation, and pragmatically I see little point.
I think the CDC policy change was premature, because many unvaccinated people will act irresponsibly, and only straightforward policies that require everyone to be masked & to social distance are enforceable. For this reason, as a vaccinated person, I would have been fine with everyone continuing masking for a few more months even though in principle I don’t need to.
But now the CDC policy is set, I don’t see how unilateral action by a vaccinated person is going to influence an irresponsible unvaccinated person to act any differently.
The first speaks to the vaccinated person’s beliefs about their immunity. The second speaks to the actuality of their immunity. Two different questions with potentially very different answers.
As well, the next bit asks about obligations and morality. Which aren’t about facts or beliefs. And is about duties to others, not about duties to self.
So given the woolly overlapping collection of questions, I’ll take a stab at it like this:
If with godlike omniscience I knew with 100% certainty that I was actually factually 100% unable to contract or carry or spread COVID I would have no logical reason to mask or distance. There’s no more reason to put a mask on me than there is to put a mask on my car or the tree in my front yard; they don’t suffer from or spread COVID and neither do I.
But I certainly would have a moral / social obligation to model good citizenship behavior for those around me (vulnerable, unvaccinated, etc.) who should be masking for their own sake and that of others but need social reinforcement to actually do so. Given this duty I should wear a mask wherever I can influence behavior, even by microscopic increments. Unless such wearing is severely disproportionate in the harms it delivers to me. e.g. Trying to run a winning marathon wearing a mask might be impossible. Standing in the crowd watching a marathon it would be easy.
Conversely …
What if (and this is the actual factual true situation for everyone everywhere who’s been vaccinated using any vaccine past, present, or future) I am highly confident I am much less likely to catch COVID, much less likely to pass along COVID, and much, much less likely to die of COVID than a generic unvaccinated person. At the same time I cannot absolutely rule out my catching COVID, nor passing it along. Nor even can I absolutely rule out dying from it. Although this last risk may well be down there in the risk rankings alongside being killed by lightning or eaten by sharks.
In this latter case it seems clear that I have all the moral / social obligations of the former case and then some. So I should mask unless seriously impractical / impossible to do so.
My bottom line:
When COVID is no longer out there to be caught is when responsible socially-minded citizens should stop masking. That’s the hard-core morally right thing to do. Anything less is a rationalization about personal convenience. Which itself might be acceptable to some people in some places at some times. But doesn’t make it morally right when measured on an absolute scale.
As a vaccinated individual, I personally think the risk of me or any other vaccinated individual getting or transmitting covid is low enough that I don’t personally need to mask up any more. Not zero risk, but on par with other risks I normally take without worrying about it.
But if I was in charge of setting rules for a venue about masking, I would have to take the prevalence of vaccine liars into account, and might still enforce an “everyone must mask up, vaccinated or not” policy unless I am satisfied that P(vaccinated | says they’re vaccinated) is sufficiently high.
At least until the numbers come even further down, I plan on masking when interacting with others in public, such as a grocery stores, restaurants, and any form of shared transportation, even if not required. I also plan on assuming that anyone who gives me dirty looks is an unvaccinated asshole who doesn’t care who they get sick.
In private, such as at home with vaccinated visitors, on the few occasions where we go into the office (employees still mostly work from home, but are also now all vaccinated, as the lone holdout gave notice recently), or when visiting vaccinated friends and relatives, I’ll be losing the mask.
Same here. Basically anywhere that I’m in an enclosed space breathing the same air as strangers with unknown vaccination status. And I’ll be wearing an N95, since the objective is primarily to protect myself. If anything, the CDC policy change will make me more careful about this than before, since I imagine far more other people will now be unmasked, and the probability of exposure to mutant strains in the immediate future may have increased.
The OP was talking about the duty of morality owed to the community. As to @DMC’s & your semi-hijack on duty owed to ourselves …
That’s my attitude too.
IMO the CDC screwed the pooch on the messaging given the actual attitudes prevalent in (much of) the country. As discussed at length in those other couple threads.
As a matter of self-preservation I believe I need to protect myself more in the next two months than I did in the last two months. To make up for all the other people who suddenly aren’t protecting anyone anymore. Which “anyone” includes me.
And oh by the way, protecting me has the side effect of incrementally protecting the community too, so there’s no conflict between those two different moral duties.
I’m willing to continue wearing a mask because I realize it’s easier to make everyone mask up than it is to check vaccine credentials and selectively enforce. But my personal comfort level, now that everyone I love is vaccinated, is such that I don’t really care anymore. I feel I have a responsibility to follow the rules, but not to go beyond them. If a particular person asks me to wear a mask around them when it’s not required, I’ll probably do it*, but I’m not going to wear a mask when I don’t have to just in case.
*“Probably” because I’m sure we can all think up some ridiculous scenarios where a person might ask me to wear a mask where the better solution is obviously for them to just leave, like if they’re coming to my door to proselytize. I intend to be reasonable with reasonable requests.
Speaking from the perspective of a Canadian, we are still 6 or so weeks behind the US. I received my 1st shot about 4 weeks ago and my wife just got hers yesterday. Our kids are both over 12 and I expect them to get 1st doses by the end of June.
Canada has taken the approach of getting as many people a 1st dose before giving 2nd doses.
Until my kids are fully vaccinated + 2 weeks, likely Sept 15th, I will continue to mask even if I’m effectively immune. This is both epidemiologically sound and models appropriate behaviour for my kids. This also doesn’t mean I plan to throw away my masks on Sept. 15th. I (and my wife and kids) will wear them when and where we feel they are needed.
To be fair, my attitude is intended as a benefit to the community, even if I don’t consider it a moral obligation. I have a single high-risk attribute (lung issues), but from an age and fitness standpoint am not terribly high risk. I just think having me wear a mask might get someone else to think it’s still okay to wear them, who might have that affect on someone else, etc. I understand the CDC and agree with the science. I just don’t agree that everyone will behave honorably and think they screwed the pooch, as you noted. The more of us that wear masks despite the guidance, the less problems there will be, unless the goal is just to kill off the idiots (only tempting on my more evil days, and I get over it quickly). Even if I were evil, there are those who aren’t able to vaccinate (tiny group that it is) and I don’t want them to come to harm either.
Yes exactly. I hope you didn’t think I was complaining; “hijack” is a more loaded word than I should have used. “Side issue” is perhaps better.
Anyhow, you and I agree that it’s important to model good civic-minded behavior by masking more than might be minimally necessary when thinking only of ourselves.
When many people are doing the wrong thing for the wrong reasons, it becomes ever more important for the good people to do the right thing for the right reasons. The alternative is chaos.
You seem to feel that your personal opinion of what is “moral,” “socially responsible,” “good,” and “the right thing,” represents an absolute truth. It’s not. Other socially responsible, good, and moral people will make different decisions.
I personally will continue to mask up when mandated by law, when requested by a business or individual, or whenever it just seems like a good idea to me. Whether I mask at other times remains to be seen. NJ still has an indoor mask mandate, so I don’t have to make any hard decisions quite yet, but I will err on the side of masking up for a long time to come. I started masking before there were any mandates in place, and will continue to follow my own best judgment, which will take CDC guidelines into account. Over the next few months I will ultimately be masked less than you will. Am I less moral and responsible and good than you are?
It’s all about me. I’m fully vaccinated and I won’t wear a mask unless it’s still required. I’ll follow the rules, but advocate for them to be loosened. Mask forever types are getting to be as obnoxious as anti maskers
Today my two greatest concerns–the risks of contagion and the possibility of variants–have been allayed by Anthony Fauci. There’s simply nobody whose take on all things COVID I trust more.
Growing real-world evidence suggests that available COVID-19 vaccines are highly protective against known SARS-CoV-2 strains, including those designated as variants of concern by the CDC, according to NIAID Director Anthony Fauci, MD.
In the opening keynote address at the American Thoracic Society (ATS) virtual meeting, Fauci highlighted newly reported vaccine data showing near complete protection against severe disease and death from the U.K. variant (B.1.1.7), now the dominant strain in the U.S., and against the South African variant as well (B.1.351).
While less is known about their effectiveness against the P.1 variant, first reported in Brazil, and the B.1.617 variant, which has led to a massive surge of infections in India, the early data are promising, according to Fauci.
He cited newly-released data from a study of 385,000 people in Qutar showing the Pfizer vaccine is 90% effective against the UK variant and 70% effective against the South Africa variant. But here’s the convincing part:
The vaccine’s efficacy against severe, critical, or fatal COVID-19 across all variants was 97.4%, with sensitivity analyses confirming the results.
As for the risk of spread,
“We’re seeing that it is very unlikely that a vaccinated person, even if there’s a breakthrough infection, would transmit it to someone else,” he said on the news show. “So the accumulation of all of those scientific facts, information, and evidence brought the CDC to make that decision to say now when you’re vaccinated, you don’t need to wear a mask, not only outdoors, but you don’t need to wear it indoors.”
[all bodling mine]
That’s enough for me. I’m ordering a button that says, “I’m vaccinated. Thanks, science!” I’ll wear it, but not my mask (unless required), with no moral qualms.
Following applicable laws, and the rules of businesses I patronize
Not encouraging others to do any of the above behaviors
Not everyone is vaccinated yet, so for many people it’s reckless to stop masking, and I don’t want to encourage reckless behavior. I’ll respect posted signage about masking as long as we have such signage.
Come wintertime I may start masking again. Not gonna lie, it was pretty rad not having a cold or flu for the past 12 months, and masking is a price I’m willing to pay.