Mask requirements at a restaurant in Austin, Texas, June 28.
Photo: sergio flores/ReutersEditor’s note: This Future View is about whether health protocols for limiting the spread of Covid-19 are still followed across the U.S. Next week we’ll ask, “How have the events of the past few months changed your plans for the future?” Students should click here to submit opinions of fewer than 250 words before July 7. The best responses will be published that night.
Freedom Is Infectious
Moving into phase 2 of Gov. Ralph Northam’s reopening plan here in Northern Virginia, residents are making up for lost time. This overcompensation involves going out more frequently than before Covid-19 and a stronger emphasis on group activity, especially among younger people. The newfound freedom is, I’d say, infectious. Social media contributes to the impression that everyone else is out, either at a protest, the beach or even the occasional house party. Liberty or safety? For many, it isn’t much of a contest.
—Deven Upadhyay, University of Virginia, global studies
Mask Off
I live in Montana, where we never followed the health protocols to begin with. Businesses closed but masks were never much of a thing. Many people in my town, Kalispell, gathered in homes for large parties and went about life pretty much the same as before. Now the state is almost fully open. It has even seen a flood of out-of-state tourists and home buyers, crowding out residents.
Montana was among the best in the nation on a variety of Covid metrics until June 1, when ”phase 2” of reopening began. Now, as many continue to act as if the virus didn’t exist, the state is seeing a surge in cases. I wish the governor would impose a mask requirement to establish the social norm, but freedom-loving Montanans—my mother among them—wouldn’t stand for it.
—Teigan Avery, University of Montana, economics and political science
A Neighborhood Comes Together
I was born and raised in Las Cruces, a college town in southern New Mexico. My neighbors and I follow the Covid rules to the letter. There are outliers, but most people are aware of the risks and accept their responsibility to help keep everyone safe. Since the town has a high proportion of retirees and older residents, many of them cared for by younger people, the risk is significant. Accordingly, the community has taken action, from installing hands-free sanitizer dispensers and distributing free masks to reserving shopping hours for elderly residents. I can say with confidence that this community has enough respect and neighborly goodwill to protect those who call it home.
—Tobias Murphy, New Mexico State University, criminal justice and law and society
The City-Suburb Divide
This summer I’ve lived in two homes, one in Portland, Ore., and one in the suburbs. In suburbia, the coronavirus was cured in April. No one has worn a mask in months, or so it seems. Businesses are open and people are fraternizing like a class of schoolchildren when a substitute teacher is in charge. Nothing will stop their summer plans, especially not a disease that “isn’t as bad as the flu.” In the city, by contrast, coronavirus is feared. Masks are plentiful, social distancing is routine, and a hand extended in greeting is taken with offense, and of course turned down.
—Cooper Conway, Boise State University, political science
Social Distancing After Mass Protests
A few weeks ago, I attended a birthday party near Birmingham, Ala., for a family friend who had turned 70. None of the more than 30 attendees wore masks or practiced social distancing. Local attitudes toward Covid-19 haven’t become any more cautious since then, and it’s a similar story for the stores, barbershops and restaurants that I’ve come across here in my home state.
Most people have grown weary after months of lockdown restrictions. Anxiety about the virus is no longer as strong as the desire to return to normal. People find reasons to ignore health restrictions and guidelines, including the massive Black Lives Matter protests. If thousands can rally in crowded streets, the logic goes, why should everyone else stay holed up in their homes? The lack of consistency in the guidelines, from government to government and business to business, has also undermined the credibility of health protocols.
All this, plus a determination not to let the virus disrupt summer plans, has unfortunately conspired to make social distancing and mask wearing a rare sight in my community. Surging daily cases combined with an increasingly lax attitude toward the virus may well result in thousands of deaths, a protracted economic recovery, and possibly another lockdown. The attempt to return to normalcy isn’t worth the cost.
—Jason Swinson, George Washington University, political science
Click here to submit a response to next week’s Future View.
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