Where the use of face masks during this phase of the coronavirus pandemic is concerned, it's like deja vu all over again, to use the expression of the late New York Yankees great language mangler Yogi Berra.
We feel people are as confused today about the situation as they were two and a half months ago. And it's no wonder.
The World Health Organization stands by what it told people in March - that healthy people, including those who don't exhibit symptoms, need not wear a face covering unless they are taking care of someone with the virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on the other hand, says people with or without symptoms should wear a face mask while in public settings.
And then in the government sector, you have New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose directives included sending infected patients into nursing homes, where hundreds died, signing an executive order that would allow business owners in his state to bar anyone not wearing a face covering. Elsewhere, where there has been little spread of the virus, the policies are much more laissez-faire, letting individuals decide what they want to do.
Residents of Chattanooga and Hamilton County, where the number of people hospitalized with the virus and in intensive care units is at the highest levels of the pandemic, undoubtedly have been weighing their options.
They read the current (as of Thursday) numbers of 27 hospitalized with COVID-19 and 13 in intensive care, but they weigh that against the availability of 182 open adult hospital beds, 29 open intensive care unit beds and 349 available adult ventilators. And they remember the panic in March in a city that officials thought could be so overrun with COVID-19 cases that it was considering converting the Chattanooga Convention Center, and later a former Alstom building, into a temporary medical facility.
Area residents read the county is averaging 50 new virus infections a day, more than 10 times what it was averaging on May 1, but they measure that against no deaths for five weeks, only 15 county deaths since the pandemic began, widely available testing and the rarely reported numbers of those who have recovered.
And, depending on their demographic, they may breathe a sigh of relief (or panic) when they see that nursing homes account for 42% of all deaths in the region, may feel freer (or more vulnerable) when they read one in four cases of the virus is in a specific Chattanooga ZIP code, and may feel fortunate (or more exposed) when they learn a sizable number of new cases come from a poultry processing plant.
Add all that to the advice of the so-called experts on social media, who always know far less than they're willing to tell you, and you have a cornucopia of contrary information, mixed information and flat-out wrong information.
Our advice about face masks at this place and at this time would be to do what makes sense for each individual. In other words, don't wear a mask because so-and-so says you should and don't not wear one because so-and-so says they're unnecessary.
If older Americans are out in public and active, it makes sense for them to wear one because they are less able to fight off infections than their children or grandchildren, and if their children or grandchildren are around them they should wear one to prevent their elder relatives from potentially contracting the virus.
Those with illnesses already compromising their immune systems should follow similar steps.
However, healthy, younger individuals who'd like to return to a restaurant setting after being mostly indoors for the last two-plus months shouldn't feel compelled to wear a face mask if they're going into an establishment that is practicing the social distancing and hygiene protocols suggested by local and state officials.
Similarly, we don't see the need for face masks for children who may be playing outside with friends for the first time in weeks.
But we believe it makes sense to wear a face mask in going to a grocery store or a big box retailer because, as essential businesses, they're likely to be frequented by the sick, the well, the recovering and the recovered.
In general, if people feel safer to wear a mask in public, they should wear one and not be concerned about what anything thinks or says. And if they don't feel like wearing a mask, they must consider the consequences both of contracting the virus or of giving it to someone in the unlikely event they have it but have no symptoms.
We hope one day soon we'll be able to put all the face mask and social distancing talk aside, but we don't believe one-size-fits-all suggestions about face coverings make sense anymore. But keeping yourself and others safe always does.