They're Vaccinated and Keeping Their Masks On, Maybe Forever [View all]

[Demovictory9]

They’re Vaccinated and Keeping Their Masks On, Maybe Forever
Face coverings have been a political flash point for more than a year. But now, the backlash is directed at people who don’t plan to take them off.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/nyregion/vaccinated-masks-cdc.html


oe Glickman has been wearing two masks and goggles for grocery runs — and said he planned to continue doing so for at least the next five years.Credit...Cindy Schultz for The New York Times

For people like Mr. Glickman, a combination of anxiety, murky information about new virus variants and the emergence of an obdurate and sizable faction of vaccine holdouts means mask-free life is on hold — possibly forever.

“I have no problem being one of the only people,” said Mr. Glickman, a professional photographer and musician from Albany, N.Y. “But I don’t think I’m going to be the only one.”

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But as more Americans become vaccinated and virus restrictions loosen, masks are at the center of a second round in the country’s culture brawl. This time, people who choose to continue to cover their faces have become targets of public ire.


In interviews, vaccinated people who continue to wear masks said they are increasingly under pressure, especially in recent days; friends and family have urged them to relax, or even have suggested that they are paranoid. On a recent trip to the grocery store, Mr. Glickman said he was stared down by a man who entered, unmasked.

“I’m confused,” the retired news anchor Dan Rather wrote on Twitter last week as backlash mounted on the platform to those still masked. “Why should people care if someone wants to wear a mask outside?”