A recent informal Chronicle reader survey asked people to choose from a list of situations where they still plan to wear a mask if they are fully vaccinated. Among more than 9,600 responses so far, the vast majority said they’ll wear masks in some scenarios where it’s not required. The most popular answer was inside stores, followed by indoor entertainment venues. Restaurants and bars were midway down the list. The gym, office and outdoor parties were near the bottom.
Given the apparent reluctance by some to abandon face coverings, we reached out to Bay Area infectious disease experts who have received vaccinations and asked how their own mask-wearing habits have changed, and where and when they still mask up. Here’s what they had to say:
Monica Gandhi (UCSF): Modeling vaccine effectiveness
Gandhi, who’s been vaccinated since January, said a mask is “a biological tool” — but a vaccination is like a “force field.”
Therefore, she said she feels completely comfortable going without a mask in public settings.
“Unless a sign tells me to, I won’t be wearing a mask,” she said. “It’s important as a scientist to model the effectiveness of vaccines.”
Even if she were to attend a crowded indoor concert or event in San Francisco, she said, she would feel comfortable not wearing a mask.
“My immunity is so powerful that I feel comfortable in a big, enclosed space,” she said.
But she said we all need to be understanding right now of people’s personal decisions and preferences.
“We should be compassionate of each other if we want to mask. For some, it’s a feeling of security,” she said. “We should also be compassionate to those who de-mask in public.”
Robert Siegel (Stanford): ‘Common sense’
Siegel’s approach is based on “common sense of what we know about the virus,” and his observation that public health recommendations “don’t always match up necessarily with our common sense.”
For him, it’s not necessarily the specific scenario he is in, but whether he knows the “vaccination status of every other person” around him, especially those he comes into close contact with.
He said he would likely feel inclined to mask up in a grocery store around strangers who are “breathing in the same air space” and coming into “close proximity.” He added that vaccinated people probably don’t need to wear a mask in the grocery store, “but it’s so easy.”
Personally, Siegel said, even though his risk of catching COVID-19 is “very low” because he is vaccinated, he doesn’t “want to be in the small percentage that might be infected.”
“With indoor dining in most circumstances you will not be breathing in someone’s air space, but if you’re at a cafeteria next to somebody, or at a bar, I would personally not feel comfortable about that,” he said.
His main reason for continuing caution is asymptomatic infection.
“I’ve been concerned all along that asymptomatic infection may carry some long-term risks,” he said. “I’m not saying that they do, I have some concerns that they do. Even the small chance of long COVID —I have a friend with long COVID — is enough for me to err on the side of caution.”
And just because the state has reopened and policies have changed, Siegel said, that doesn’t mean he will suddenly change his own personal behaviors.
Art Reingold (UC Berkeley): A ‘high level of confidence’
Reingold said going maskless outdoors is a “perfectly reasonable choice” for anyone who is vaccinated like himself.
“Doing things such as shopping, going to the Berkeley Bowl ... some people will feel totally comfortable,” he said. “I personally feel comfortable shopping without a mask, but I know other people who don’t.”
Scientifically speaking, Reingold said, the “vaccines offer a very high level of protection against severe illness and hospitalizations and death.” His own view is that “fully vaccinated people who do become infected and not ill themselves are shedding very little virus and are pretty unlikely to transmit to others.”
Knowing that, Reingold said he “would be pretty prepared” to take off his mask in public settings and “feel safe” doing so unless a business wants him to wear a mask. The only situation he could see himself feeling more comfortable wearing a mask is at an indoor rock concert or basketball game with “thousands and thousands of people milling about.”
But he understands that everyone has their own risk tolerance. Some people may “have a frail person at home” or a “child at home they are worried about infecting,” so wearing a mask provides that person “extra safety” even though he himself is not worried.
He emphasized that anyone who hasn’t gotten vaccinated should do so, because the “best protection we have against COVID and variants we know of are the current vaccines.”
George Rutherford (UCSF): Other risk factors
Rutherford said because he is over 65, he has additional risk factors, so he needs to be more careful. In most cases, he said, he would likely still wear a mask.
“I would probably wear it in a grocery store,” he said. “I think of Costco on a Saturday afternoon.”
He said people are mostly wearing masks in the places he goes anyway, and it “all feels normative now.”
Wearing a mask at the movie theater would depend on the size of the crowd and the level of ventilation.
“Walking down the street, at outdoor parties, I probably wouldn’t wear a mask,” he said. “If I went to an A’s game, it would depend on where I sat and how dense (the crowd) was around me.”
At the Montclair location of Starbucks in Oakland, Rutherford said, everyone was wearing a mask, so he wore his. He referred to it as “belt and suspenders stuff,” even though “99.99% of protection comes from the vaccine,” he said.
Kellie Hwang is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KellieHwang
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June 17, 2021 at 06:03PM
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Are COVID experts still wearing masks? Four in the Bay Area explain their plans - San Francisco Chronicle
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