Last vestige of an armada of mandatory measures that fall one after the other, the mask will become optional from May 14. This expected decision was confirmed on Wednesday by Public Health, which judges that the epidemiological data allow this spring improvement. After two years of collective management of a pandemic, everyone for themselves will now have a face.
To wear or not to wear the mask? This will now be not only your responsibility, but also your decision — yours, and yours alone. Except in public transport and health establishments or accommodation intended for vulnerable clienteles, masks may fall. The peak of the sixth wave is behind us, as the statistics show, and the fact of abandoning the face covering soon does not make the acting national director of public health of Quebec, Luc Boileau, fear a rise. At most a slight slowdown in the descent, he assured Wednesday, confident that uncovering the face should not cause an escalation of cases.
For months now, the Quebec government has been quietly but firmly accustoming us to this concept of individual risk management, to which the population is becoming accustomed, as it has done with everything else. The truth is that the news, confirmed on Wednesday, does not cause the slightest bewilderment: it was expected, even hoped for, and anyone who has started to frequent public spaces again has recently understood that the mask has already left the face of many to frequent the bottom from the pocket.
This crucial step, which all the governments of the world are gradually taking, comes at a time when the epidemiological data are reassuring. However, it opens up an unknown universe. Because, although the experts ardently wish that the wearing of the mask be maintained in circumstances which justify protecting oneself or others — those who are vulnerable or who show symptoms of an infection — it is difficult to predict the behavior that the population will adopt in mid-May. If the habit of wearing a mask is well anchored, the level of weariness of the citizens is palpable. Two years of pandemic, it wears out.
In an interview Wednesday morning on the show All one morningon Radio-Canada radio, the anthropologist of the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec (INSPQ), Ève Dubé, had interesting data to disclose on this subject.
His team has been measuring for a few weeks the intentions of citizens regarding the maintenance (or not) of wearing a mask after the lifting of the obligation. The latest polls indicate that two-thirds of respondents say they want to continue wearing it, and unsurprisingly, the will becomes stronger with age. Furthermore, given the fact that citizens tend to conform to the “social norm”, it is to be expected that, in a group where all the people are unmasked, the person who wishes to keep his mask will have difficulty in deal with pressure from others.
This heralds tougher times for citizens living with weakened immunity. From mid-May, their safety zone will shrink, and the risk of contamination will inevitably increase.
These will continue to wear the mask, and it is to be hoped that for those who opt to maintain the face covering, ostracization and stigma will not poison their daily lives. Anthropologist Ève Dubé had another staggering data to deliver on Wednesday: 40% of people surveyed reported having experienced a conflict with people around them about the mask. Mix pandemic fatigue with a dose of polarization, and it explodes!
Civility and respect for others must continue to be present in the health toolbox, alongside measures that will remain the norm for a long time to come – distancing, respiratory etiquette, hand washing. In two years of pandemic, it is undeniable that these health measures have also greatly contributed to reducing the prevalence of viruses that are generally very present, such as those of the common cold or gastro.
Let’s hope that, from our good habits, we keep this reflex of masking our face when we present ourselves with symptoms, just to protect others. Pandemic fed up cannot justify weakening others.
Spring, and after it summer, will mark for many a return to normal even more concrete than that of last summer: return to work, resumption of social and cultural activities, putting health measures on hold. If Quebec says it does not intend to impose a new set of severe measures, it nevertheless plans a seventh wave in the fall and, with it, a new vaccination campaign. Let’s not put the masks away too far.