Was Philly right to bring back the indoor mask mandate? | Pro/Con

After more than a month without mask requirements, Philadelphia has become the first big U.S. city to reimpose indoor mask rules as COVID-19 rates rise. Starting next week, masks will once again be required in all indoor public places in Philadelphia, city officials announced Monday.

While some Philadelphians are cheering on the city for its proactive approach to COVID mitigation, others — including many business leaders — question whether the mandate makes sense now that vaccines are prevalent and hospitalizations remain low.

Two members of The Inquirer Editorial Board and Opinion department debate: Was Philly right to bring back the indoor mask mandate?

By Daniel Pearson

In the past, I was very supportive of mask mandates. They represented a good option to reduce risk while allowing for essential in-person activities to continue. As a member of the city’s vote-counting team at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in November 2020, I spent long hours wearing a KN95 mask indoors. You can’t count ballots via Zoom, and at the time, a high-quality mask was the best way for me to protect myself and my family from COVID-19.

Thanks to the hard work of scientists and researchers around the world, that’s no longer true. Not only do we have lifesaving vaccines, we also have treatments like Paxlovid and two years of experience treating COVID patients. Thanks to these new medicines, even previously high-risk individuals like 95-year-old Queen Elizabeth II have contracted COVID without major complications. According to White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Ashish Jha, hospitalizations have never been lower.

Some mandate supporters point to the low vaccination rate for the city’s children, which is lower than that of adults. It is important to put these risks in context — over 99.9% of COVID deaths have occurred in adults. Researchers say that the majority of children in America have already had COVID. In Philadelphia, the virus comes far behind gun violence and other threats as a danger to our children. This is why the Policy Lab at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, among other key stakeholders in children’s health, has pivoted away from focusing only on the harm from COVID in children, to a more holistic approach that considers how mitigation impacts other parts of their lives.

» READ MORE: Philadelphia is first U.S. big city to reimpose indoor mask rules as COVID rates rise

Meanwhile, the costs of mask mandates for the city’s business community and city revenue have gone up. In April 2020, the city was part of an international movement to eliminate the spread of COVID-19. Next week’s mandate represents the city going it alone. The federal funds that helped these businesses (as well as the city and SEPTA) survive the pandemic are already allocated, and customers have options right over the city’s borders. The virus itself will continue to spread throughout the region, which will drive case numbers up in Philadelphia, no matter what the city does.

Beyond the risk to the hospitality industry, a mandate also makes it less likely that the city will succeed in getting suburban commuters to ditch their (mask-free) work from home routine for eight-plus hours of working from the office while masked. While Philly’s health commissioner, Cheryl Bettigole, cited redlining to support her mandate, a mandate that only impacts businesses in America’s Blackest big city reinforces economic disparities.

“The health department should articulate a clear strategy to get more of the city’s adults vaccinated and more of our vulnerable populations boosted.”

Instead of focusing on a mask mandate that will only be enforced in the lowest-risk parts of the city, the health department should articulate a clear strategy to get more of the city’s adults vaccinated and more of our vulnerable populations boosted. Vaccines have the most potential to shield Philadelphians from serious complications of COVID, not a return to universal cloth masking and other mitigation strategies from the early pandemic.

Mandate supporters also should not assume that the wider public shares their affection or nonchalance around mask-wearing. Any move to regular reintroduction of mask mandates needs to have strong backing, which simply doesn’t exist anymore.

While many individuals will continue to make the choice to mask based on what feels best for them, public health officials — including the highly respected Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to the White House — are no longer emphasizing mask mandates, instead arguing that people should assess their own risk. It is time for Philadelphia’s Department of Public Health to join that consensus.

Daniel Pearson is an opinion staff writer at The Inquirer. dpearson@inquirer.com

By Alison McCook

For as long as I live, I will never understand the fuss about masks. Particularly when you only have to wear them for short periods of time, such as indoors in public spaces. I know the burden is harder for people who work indoors, such as store clerks (who have the added burden of enforcing mandates). But most of the angry anti-maskers I’ve seen in videos are shoppers, where the indoor mandate means they just have to pop on a mask for a few minutes while they buy what they need, then take it off right after. What’s the big deal?

Philadelphia is the first major U.S. city to reinstate its indoor mask mandate, and I’m glad to live in a place that wants to be more proactive in its approach to COVID-19.

To me, the minor inconvenience of wearing a mask for short intervals is far outweighed by the chance it will help someone avoid a nasty disease. And data show that regions that take precautions against COVID — including mask mandates — have fewer COVID deaths.

We still need to take precautions. I don’t fully trust any vaccine data at this point, but according to the city of Philadelphia, roughly one-quarter of adults and three-quarters of kids 5-11 are not fully vaccinated. And, of course, younger kids aren’t yet eligible. I know that COVID care has greatly improved since the beginning of the pandemic, but we’re not “all clear” yet — nearly 600 U.S. residents continue to die every day from the virus.

“I’m glad to live in a place that wants to be more proactive in its approach to COVID-19.”

I know the city literally said “all clear” as it dropped its mask mandate in March, when the number of daily deaths was higher than it is now. But at that time, COVID numbers were decreasing rapidly. And despite the “all clear,” Philadelphia said that if things changed, it would reconsider the mandates. Now, things are changing.

In the last two weeks, the number of Philadelphians with COVID has increased by an estimated 86% — and those are just the cases we know about. I have several friends who became infected within recent weeks who simply tested themselves at home. They never made official reports, so they are likely not included in any official case counts. I know that, according to the CDC’s metrics, Philadelphia’s conditions don’t yet merit masks, but the CDC can be wrong. To me, it’s not worth the risk.

I have a choice about whether to frequent places with mask mandates because I live in Cheltenham, which sits along the northern border of the city. I know there are concerns that masking rules will drive people to the suburbs and New Jersey — but we don’t hear enough from those who are more likely to go to Philadelphia because of its stricter approach to COVID. During the pandemic, I’ve opted to shop in or close to Philadelphia as much as possible, and not the suburbs, because I see more masks in and around the city.

» READ MORE: Is the latest COVID-19 surge in Europe coming to the U.S.?

I’m not in some alarmist minority, either — as states were relaxing masking rules in February, most Americans who responded to a CBS News-YouGov poll said they wanted to keep indoor mask mandates. I’m under age 50 and relatively healthy, so imagine how much safer people at higher risk of severe disease feel seeing others wearing masks.

The mask mandate will be both temporary and short-lived until the number of cases begins to decrease again or we understand more about the form of COVID that’s causing the increase. For many of us, it’s a minor inconvenience. For others, it could save their lives.

Alison McCook is an assistant opinion editor at The Inquirer. amccook@inquirer.com