This summer, wastewater data shows us that COVID-19 cases are surging, and COVID-related deaths and hospitalizations are increasing as well. Vaccination rates are abysmal. Approximately 17 million people nationally live with long COVID, and your risk of developing long term disabling symptoms increases with each COVID infection. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have given up recommending any real mitigation strategies, prioritizing production and work over health and safety, and removing recommendations for masking and even for isolating when testing positive for COVID.
Although COVID-19 was the second leading cause of death globally in 2023, we’ve moved from a “we’re all in this together” moment to a “you do you” ideology that leaves sick and disabled people, as well as many other marginalized groups, at high risk of infection. To make matters much worse, politicians are doubling down on their COVID denial by promoting new laws that would outlaw the wearing of masks in public, removing one of the few protections people can still rely on to stay safe in a world that wants to forget the ongoing pandemic.
Most recently, the University of California and California State University systems issued mask bans as part of a project to curtail pro-Palestine demonstrations. Campuses in both these systems released similar “time, place and manner” policies that include restricting the use of masks to conceal one’s identity and requiring that students identify themselves if asked to do so by campus personnel. Given the broad language of the policies, many have decried them as not only targeting pro-Palestine activists but also restricting the ability of students to protect themselves in the midst of an ongoing pandemic.
California’s academic institutions are not the first to implement widespread bans on face masks. In June, North Carolina signed into law a ban on face masks that was also explicitly meant to prevent the use of masks by pro-Palestinian demonstrators on college campuses, and that initially included no exemption for people wearing masks for medical reasons. After the state legislature overrode the governor’s veto, the final version included an exemption with the caveat that anyone can be asked to temporarily remove their mask by cops or property owners. New York’s Nassau County also recently passed a similar law.
Disability Rights New York (DRNY) became the first to challenge this type of legislation in court this past week. The advocacy group filed a class-action lawsuit asking a judge to halt enforcement of this mask ban, claiming that it would be used to prevent chronically ill and disabled people, or anyone taking health precautions, from being able to safely join protests, therefore categorically denying them their right to protest under the U.S. and state constitutions.
Proponents of mask ban laws insist that these laws will not impact people who are wearing masks for medical reasons, but leaves it up to law enforcement to use discretion. Masking is a critical safety tool for activists as well as for those who cannot risk COVID infection, and the discretionary enforcement essentially guarantees that intersectionally marginalized people will bear the brunt of the consequences of these bad laws. Disability advocates describe COVID as a mass disabling event because so many people are now living with debilitating symptoms—like brain fog and heart damage, among others—as a result of their infections.
The threat of mask bans to people who cannot risk being infected with COVID is clear, but these bans also threaten protesters speaking out against the ongoing genocide the United States is funding in Palestine. These protesters have also reported facing vigilante attacks, being fired from their jobs, and being hunted down and arrested for their political involvement, thus needing an extra layer of protection both against infection and criminalization.
Unhoused people are significantly more likely to live with disability or chronic illness, and therefore are more prone to long COVID, hospitalization, and death due to COVID infection. People without shelter are also much more likely to face criminalization for minor offenses, like drug use or simply living outside, because they lack private spaces to retreat to for safety and because of prejudices against unhoused people. Homeless people and advocates should watch out for existing or proposed laws that ban masks in public and afford discretion to the police in targeting and criminalizing homeless people for necessary, life-sustaining acts.
