Masks are not 100% effective. Many people who wear masks don’t understand how to wear them effectively. Some people who might say they support wearing masks might not wear them in circumstances where experts say they should. People who respond to polls might say they support masks because they don’t want to admit they find them annoying. Compliance with mask mandates rarely matches stated support of mask mandates.
These realities keep being used as pushback against mask mandates in this thread and elsewhere online, but such a position presumes that masks are being presented a singular “solution” to COVID-19 instead of part of a larger set of public health practices. Masks are about reducing risk, meaning that anything that encourages mask use is a net benefit. The fact that people no-nose, or remove the mask to eat and drink and don’t put it back on swiftly, or wear a mask with a filter that limits its function? It’s not good, but the fact they’ve been forced to have a mask at all at anytime means they’re more likely to wear it, especially in situations where it is most needed.
I won’t attempt to debate the core issues of COVID-19 with people who treat “following the guidance of scientific experts” as some kind of social failing, because that’s pointless. But I will simply say that for the purpose of the “mask debate” in the context of theme parks, there is no going back, and no amount of anecdotal evidence is going to change that. Mask mandates function as a way of protecting against asymptomatic spread AND a park being held accountable in situations where distancing is either ignored or unavoidable, particularly for employees who don’t have the benefit of being able to remain more than six feet away from guests as they check restraints. It’s not about 100% effectiveness; it’s about mitigating risk and commitments to safety that require so little from us yet nonetheless face resistance the likes of which we’re seeing in this thread.
