As the hypercontagious delta variant continues to sweep across the nation, Bay Area residents are bracing for a prolonged pandemic — and adjusting yet again to the ever-evolving roster of COVID rules.
The latest twist came Wednesday, when California recommended that everyone wear masks once again in indoor public spaces.
In the Bay Area, where universal masking recommendations have been in effect for all counties but Solano for nearly two weeks, many people interviewed by The Chronicle on Wednesday expressed near-unanimous support for masking up again for the sake of protecting others — especially younger children, who aren’t eligible to be vaccinated yet. But for some, the acceptance is mixed with disappointment and defeat.
At the Starbucks in San Francisco’s West Portal neighborhood, coffee drinker Daniel Escudero of San Francisco said he was “OK about doing my part to end this thing” by masking up once more. But he was also frustrated.
“If people refuse to get vaccinated, it’s going to be hard to end the pandemic,” he said. “I’m not really angry at these people. I just find them stupid. I understand everyone has freedom and all that, but I really don’t get this.”
Escudero was speaking before California’s announcement, but a day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made similar recommendations. California’s are more comprehensive, covering everyone in the state, whereas the federal advice applied only to areas where the virus is spreading rapidly — which is most, though not all, of California.
In San Francisco, meanwhile, Mayor London Breed said Wednesday the city is considering mandating masks for everyone indoors, regardless of vaccination status. She offered few details and said more information would be released later this week or early next week.
New evidence that even fully vaccinated people can transmit the delta variant more easily than previously believed has spurred health officials to act.
“I’m happy to wear this and I’m happy to stay alive,” said Maksim Grats, who along with his wife, Tatyana Grats, wore black fabric masks at the West Portal Starbucks, even while other customers were sitting inside bare faced.
The couple said they were trying to persuade a handyman who does work for them to get vaccinated, so far unsuccessfully.
“Wearing a mask and getting a shot is is not some Big Brother thing,” Tatyana Grats said. “It just makes sense.”
Like the Grats and many others in the Bay Area, Hernan Morales of Oakland hasn’t stopped masking. Morales, who works as a cook, said that at his restaurant, he and his co-workers have been wearing masks the whole time. The CDC’s guidance seemed like the right thing to do, he said in Spanish.
“It’s a little uncomfortable, especially while exercising,” he said as he wore his mask while working out by Lake Merritt with his 8-year-old son. But it’s worth it to keep the community healthy, he said, because “we have to take care of each other.”
Njeri Karanja is willing to follow the safety protocols, but says she’s very tired of it all. Hernan Morales works out at Lake Merritt in Oakland: “We have to take care of each other.”Claire Ramsey has a son who’s too young to be vaccinated, so she’s even more careful than she would have been.
Santiago Mejia/The ChronicleCynthia Kear of San Francisco said she had already gone back to indoor masking, ahead of any rules that required it.
“I did stop wearing it, for a brief period, but the delta variant is so much stronger, and who knows what the next variant will be like,” she said.
She said she was trying to understand the handful of vaccine deniers that she knew.
“I don’t get it,” she said. “If everyone had gotten vaccinated, we wouldn’t be here.”
For some, a return to universal masking felt like slipping backwards.
“It’s sad,” said Krista Gaeta of Oakland as she and co-worker Claire Ramsey sat at Lake Merritt for an outdoor work meeting. “It feels like we’re regressing after we had such progress.”
Both are in favor of the new masking guidance and have kept wearing masks indoors in public spaces despite already being vaccinated. Still, they felt a bit defeated by the news.
Ramsey has a 10-year-old who can’t get vaccinated yet, so she’ll be even more careful now and won’t go back to indoor dining at restaurants for a while. Both said that they think more masks and more vaccinations are the way out of the pandemic.
Claire Ramsey has a son who’s too young to be vaccinated, so she’s even more careful than she would have been.
Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle“I wish more folks had confidence in the vaccine,” Gaeta said.
Christine Molina and Njeri Karanja of Oakland have also continued wearing masks indoors, such as at the grocery store and nail salon. Both have been vaccinated. While they’re very willing to follow the new guidance to err on the side of caution, the news was still disappointing.
“For me, it’s still a bummer,” Molina said.
“I’m ready to be done” with the pandemic, Karanja said.
Catherine Ho, Steve Rubenstein and Danielle Echeverria are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: cho@sfchronicle.com, srubenstein@sfchronicle.com, danielle.echeverria@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Cat_Ho, @SteveRubeSF, @DanielleEchev