There is still a sign on the front door of the Wolfeboro Food Coop that reads: »Face masks required«. Until recently, there was another sign just below that stating that the New Hampshire health food store was following federal guidelines.
On May 14, 2021, Erin Perkins, the store’s manager, removed the second sign. A day earlier, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that people who have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus no longer have to wear a mask in most situations. “We didn’t expect that,” says Perkins. “It puts us in a precarious position. We don’t really want to ask our customers whether they are vaccinated or not. “
In 2020, New Hampshire was the last state in the New England region of the northeastern United States to require the wearing of masks in public to curb the spread of Sars-CoV-2. On April 16, 2021, New Hampshire became the first state in the region to lift this regulation, following the example of several other states that also relaxed their restrictions in connection with the pandemic.
New Hampshire cities and businesses can still set their own rules. Perkins feels uncomfortable with maskless people in her business, even after the CDC revised its guidelines across the US. She knows some customers have weakened immune systems, and new research suggests that people in this group are still at risk after vaccination. “We have therefore decided to wait until we have a better feeling about the matter and until the numbers make a little more sense to us,” she says. Even if that means dealing with angry customers every now and then.
Loosened too early?
Anne Hoen, an epidemiologist at Dartmouth College, understands Perkins’ caution. In their eyes, the state and states relaxed the mask requirement a little too soon. Studies have shown relatively clearly that masks reduce the risk of contracting Covid-19 and ultimately dying from it. Even so, even today – almost a year and a half after the pandemic began – scientists and health care experts are still struggling to get people to put them on at the right moments. In the USA, for example, fewer and fewer masks have been used on average since mid-February, although the number of infections has risen again in some places in the meantime.
Monica Gandhi, who studies infectious diseases at the University of California at San Francisco, is one of those experts who stress that mask-wearing requirements should evolve as vaccination rates rise. Authorities should start easing restrictions to give people hope and motivate them to vaccinate, she says. But such easing would have to be done with caution and caution.
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