For some people, the idea of going to the store without a mask right now is so shocking, they’re having stress dreams about it. But once the need to wear a face-covering every time we go shopping is over, our instinct to reach for our masks might not disappear entirely in the U.S.
Living through the worst epidemic Americans have seen in a century might shift attitudes about long-term mask use, in part because what many people experienced during the pandemic is uniquely traumatic, says Isaac Fung, an epidemiologist at Georgia Southern University. “It’s probably a once-in-a-lifetime experience, even though there have been, and will be, coronaviruses that create an epidemic.” Who changes behaviors and how frequently they reach for their face coverings, however, could depend on a few factors.
Part of why it’s possible that masks could become a more long-term fixture in the U.S. is because elsewhere in ...
