After downplaying the effectiveness of masks for weeks, elected leaders and health officials across the country have urged people since early April to wear them. You can’t get on a plane or in an Uber without one. People are required to wear one when they leave home in New York.
But in Virginia, you can still get into a Walmart, or a Home Depot or an ABC store with an uncovered face.
Richmond Times-Dispatch reporters spent nearly 15 hours observing nearly 2,900 people entering stores for groceries and other supplies in the city and neighboring localities this week. More than half — 1,480 — didn’t wear a mask or other face covering. Another two dozen were doing it wrong: A woman walked into the Home Depot in Chester on Wednesday with a black headband wrapped behind her neck and over her mouth, with nothing covering her nose.
Shopping with an uncovered face increases the risk of contagion for everyone around you. Many who ultimately test positive don’t show symptoms, making it hard to tell they’re spreading the virus to others. But the measure often is positioned as a preference, in a nod to a culture that emphasizes individual freedom.
It shouldn’t be, said Lois Shepherd, a biomedical ethics professor at the University of Virginia’s medical school who sees similarities between the arguments against masks and vaccination.
“These are not just individual choices, because we live in societies where we unintentionally can affect the health of others. We’re supposed to drive safely. We should wear a mask. All of these things we do not only for ourselves, but for the rest of society,” Shepherd said. “I think now this is so culturally and politically hijacked in a way, the issue of wearing a mask, I think it’s having a symbolic effect of where are you politically.”
A Gallup poll last month found that the percentage of Americans who report that they have worn a mask outside increased from 38% to 62% in just one week, but the same poll found that Democrats were far more likely to report wearing a mask than Republicans, and that more people report wearing masks in cities than in rural areas.
In The Times-Dispatch’s small snapshot, people shopping in Hanover County were least likely to be wearing a mask, with only 1 in 3 covering their faces. Shoppers in the counties of Chesterfield and Henrico were both right below 50%, and Richmond was just above, with 54% of shoppers wearing masks.
The numbers swung from store to store, but without a clear pattern beyond locality. More than 60% of people entering the Wegmans in Chesterfield wore a