Masks on, masks off – San Francisco Chronicle

Turns out, it was a real pickle: a personal health decision involving not only statistics and beliefs but also infinite emotional variables — trauma and comfort, guilt and confusion, familial relationships, self-image, and solidarity with still-masked workers.

To get a snapshot of the Bay Area as it emerges from the worst of the pandemic, we sent reporters and photographers to five grocery stores around the region on Thursday, two days into the reopening. For an hour, the journalists counted customers they deemed to be adults as they exited, tabulating people as masked or unmasked. (Partially masked folks were given credit for intent and counted as masked.) Reporters then interviewed people about their choices.

The consensus: Most people aren’t ready to move on from masks. And their reluctance means there’s no easy way to discern what message individuals are sending by being covered or uncovered. Is that masked person unvaccinated and following the rules? Or is she just being extra safe? Is that unmasked person vaccinated? Or does he not believe in masks or the virus at all?

Even public health experts have mixed views about ditching masks, despite what one Bay Area infectious disease doctor described as a “force field” of protection created by vaccines. Masks are still required in places like public transit, medical clinics and schools and for any unvaccinated people in indoor public settings and businesses.

We picked grocery stores because they’ve been a nexus for masking decisions, with food shopping representing a nearly unavoidable convergence with strangers in an indoor space with sometimes crowded aisles and — often — a face-to-face interaction with a cashier. What we found is a reminder that June 15 was not a light-switch moment but another halting step through a disaster that has changed us in ways we don’t yet fully understand.

Where we went

What we learned

WAIT, WHAT? While it’s true that, as of this past Tuesday, California no longer requires masks in retail settings, confusion lingers. Stores can set their own policies, and even though most are allowing vaccinated people to lose the masks, many people — and store signs — are still catching up with the news.

LIKE DOFFING ONE’S CAP: For many people, wearing a mask has become a way to show respect, a bit of chivalry in the aisles. That goes double for interacting with shelf stockers and clerks who remain masked.

PIERCING THE PANDEMIC: The unmasked were eager to let their skin breathe, show off a new nose ring, smile, flirt, be seen and demonstrate they trust the science of vaccines.

THE KIDS AREN’T ALRIGHT: About 48% of Californians are fully vaccinated, but one group remains totally unprotected: children under 12. Some vaccinated shoppers said that the chance they could spread the virus to a child, even if slim, was enough reason to continue wearing a mask in public.

PERMANENT SHIFT? Masks have been commonplace throughout parts of Asia for decades to prevent contracting or spreading illness. Some shoppers asked: Why not embrace this simple health practice for the long term?

POLITICS AS USUAL: For many, going masked or maskless has nothing to do with their politics — but they still worry about the perception it does.

DO YOUR PART, RETURN YOUR CART: Unrelated to the pandemic, an informal audit of who pushes their grocery cart back to the drop-off corral exposed an eyebrow-raising generational divide. Elders were dutiful despite troubled knees. Those in the middle ages were too hurried. But Ryan Malek-Maple, a 19-year-old political science major at UC Berkeley, waved to the woman parked next to him and asked if he could take her cart back with his. “I’m just trying to do my part,” said the masked man.

 

Rainbow Grocery

1745 Folsom St., San Francisco, 9-10 a.m. Thursday

Masked: 63
Unmasked: 3

Here’s what people said:

IT’S ALL POLITICAL: Artist Keith Hennessy, 61, wore a black t-shirt honoring the Stud bar, which closed during the pandemic, and a silver nose ring visible because he wasn’t wearing a mask. Glancing at his fellow shoppers, nearly all masked, Hennessy said he understood why they ignored the signs allowing vaccinated people to go maskless. They’re sending a message, he said: “I didn’t vote for Trump.’”

I’M BEING SAFE (SHHH!): Tarliena Aamir of Oakland, 69, got vaccinated in secret because, she said, many in her family wouldn’t approve. But the retired San Francisco sheriff’s deputy said she wasn’t sure it was a good idea: “I still wear a mask because I’m not sure if being vaccinated will actually keep me safe.” 

NAUGHTY, NAUGHTY: Contractor Christopher Reynolds, 40, of San Francisco, admitted to feeling self-conscious as he wandered maskless around Rainbow Grocery, bananas in hand. “It’s a little bit naughty,” he said. “Like smoking was in the ’90s.” 

A GIRL’S BEST FRIEND: Private chef Andrea Loeffler of San Francisco, 37, sounded believable when she said she was unmasked because “I’m vaccinated, I’m healthy and, I hope, some of the danger has passed.” Then something on the chef’s face glinted under the fluorescent light — a tiny gold and diamond nose stud that would have gone unseen if Loeffler had worn a mask. She smiled. “I just got it two days ago. I was excited and I wanted to show it off!”

STAYING THE COURSE: Mushrooms and scallions in hand for lentil soup, Dylan Reinhardt, a 49-year-old software engineer, knew he needed no mask to shop at Rainbow. Not for public health and not for the law. Yet there he was, face in full swaddle, selecting vegetables. “I’m not quite ready,” he said, “to let the anti-maskers have the world back.”

Rocky’s Market

288 Ninth Ave., Oakland, 8-9 a.m. Thursday

Masked: 26
Unmasked: 1

Here’s what people said:

TEXAN GETS MIXED SIGNALS: For some like Lance Jackson, a 53-year-old Dallas pilot on a stopover in Oakland, the mask rules were confusing. Rocky’s doesn’t require masks for the vaccinated, but still had “Masks are required” signs up. Jackson, who hadn’t been forced to wear one for awhile, went inside maskless and didn’t have a back-up in his pocket. So when he saw an outdated sign telling customers to mask up, he said, “I immediately made a 180-degree turn and left.” 

NO BIGGIE: Oaklander Elmer Guevara, 35, walked partially masked out of Rocky’s with a beer in hand, then sipped it at a nearby table while explaining he plans to stay masked even though he’s vaccinated. His parents, a grandmother and a cousin got COVID in December at a family get-together that he happened to miss. Guevara noted that he hadn’t had a cold or the flu in more than a year, and though he’d worn his mask wrong in the store — conspicuously below the nose — he was adamant: “I don’t understand what the big issue is. Show people you care about them by putting your f— mask on.”

TRUST SCIENCE: William Elmer, a 40-year-old engineer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, asked a Rocky’s cashier if it was OK to go maskless, and the worker gave him the thumbs-up. “This is what trusting the science looks like,” he said of removing his mask.

NO DELI MEAT MEANS NO VAX: A masked Victoria Whitely, 34, an Oakland resident who works in venture capital, said her family in Modesto is “anti-mask, anti-everything,” but that she isn’t vaccinated yet for one reason. “I did IVF and poured a lot of money into getting pregnant,” she said, adding that she is waiting to enter her second trimester — just weeks away — before she gets the shot. (The CDC advises that pregnant women can get vaccinated.) “I can’t eat sliced deli meat right now so let’s just give it a couple more weeks and then go for it.” 

THE FATALISTIC VIEW: A masked Francis Liau, 43, who stopped into Rocky’s for a breakfast burrito before starting his first workday at a nearby kayak shop, said he wasn’t vaccinated and never would be. “There are just a lot of folks on Earth,” Liau said. “This is Earth’s response to what we’ve done to it. I’m not married and I don’t have kids. If the virus takes me, then it’s, like, all right. It’s probably a good thing.” 

Safeway

3365 Deer Valley Blvd., Antioch, 9-10 a.m. Thursday

Masked: 58
Unmasked: 13

Here’s what people said:

YOU CAN SEE IT IN THEIR EYES: Lauren, a fully vaccinated medical assistant from Antioch, usually wears a face mask everywhere she goes to make others feel comfortable. But on Thursday, when she forgot to bring her mask to the store, she thought: “Well, I don’t have to go back and get it.” The 22-year-old, who declined to give her last name, quickly regretted her move when masked patrons gave her cold stares. “It was awkward,” she said. “It definitely made me want to wear a mask.”

A HARD HABIT TO BREAK: Like many, Loretta Thomas of Antioch has gotten so used to wearing a mask that she keeps a few in her car just in case she forgets to bring one from home. And not because she feels unsafe not wearing one; rather, it’s become a habit she hasn’t been able to shake. “I’m vaccinated and still wearing a mask,” said Thomas, 51. “I’m pretty much used to it.” 

IF I DON’T HAVE TO, I WON’T: Anietie Ugoh, 33 and visiting from Southern California, prefers not to wear a mask, and doesn’t believe wearing one will fully protect him, but he has gotten so used to them that he doesn’t mind covering up if it is required: “You’re kinda like the odd man out if you’re not wearing a mask.”

Trader Joe’s

337 Third St., San Rafael, 9:09-10:09 a.m. Thursday

Masked: 119
Unmasked: 17

Here’s what people said:

WHAT WOULD FAUCI DO? San Rafael retiree Liz McBrady, 72, was ready to ditch the mask, but then all she saw were masked faces inside Trader Joe’s. Confused, she went to the customer service desk, where a staffer told her she was free to unmask. So McBrady, who is vaccinated and always buys extra peanut butter to donate to a homeless shelter when she shops, put the mask back in her pocket. “If Fauci walked in,” she said, “he wouldn’t wear a mask.” 

CONCERN OVER THE DELTA VARIANT: The pandemic’s cruelty is not fading for a masked Syed Ali, a 64-year-old IT pro for the insurance industry who lost both his mother and aunt to complications of COVID-19 within the last three weeks. The elderly women lived in Bangalore, where the delta variant is driving a surge. Airlines have canceled flights and there’s no way for the family to gather and grieve. “There is another variant afoot,” Ali said, “and I’m not confident we are protected against it.” 

ARE WE READY? A 19-year-old Marinwood resident, Sasha Garcia, said her family survived a bout with COVID-19 last summer — a wakeup call that influenced her plan to continue wearing a mask in places like grocery stores. She’s alarmed that so many restrictions have been lifted at a time when so many people remain reluctant to get vaccinated: “It’s infuriating to see other people not take it seriously.” 

A COMMON COURTESY? Samantha Gottsegen, 18, of Fairfax, and Keeley Levinson, 17, of Woodacre, were shopping for an epic post-graduation camping adventure in Oregon and Washington. The vaccinated teens said they wore masks in a nod to essential workers and people unable to get the vaccine. “I just think it’s respectful,” Levinson said. 

FOR THE CHILDREN: San Anselmo’s Rachel Feibusch, 41, wants her daughters, 3 and 5, who aren’t yet eligible for vaccines, to continue wearing masks. So it makes sense for Feibusch to wear one, too. It’s about modeling good behavior, she said, as well as caution. “I’m not ready to give it up yet,” she said. “There are cases of people getting COVID-19 even after the vaccine.” 

Draeger’s Market

222 East Fourth Ave., San Mateo, 9:19-10:19 a.m. Thursday

Masked: 65
Unmasked: 9 

Here’s what people said:

EVERYBODY ELSE IS DOING IT: Joni Holland, 63, feels much safer now that she is vaccinated. Still, the San Francisco resident won’t stop wearing a mask while that continues to be embraced by most of the public: “It just seems to me that everybody inside a store is wearing a mask still, and so why not?”

THESE MASKS WERE MADE FOR WEARING: People were still visibly social distancing and wearing masks when Wilson Lam, 40, stopped by Draeger’s. Though vaccinated, the Hayward resident will keep masking up until California’s vaccination rates improve. Plus, “I still have tons of masks at home anyway,” Lam said. “So I might as well keep using them.”

THE NORM IN JAPAN: Yuki Kobayashi, 62, of San Mateo, said he will keep wearing masks in public through the end of the year. Kobayashi, who is of Japanese descent, said it’s no big deal — he’s used to wearing them: “We have a culture of wearing masks in the winter season.”

‘POP OPEN THE BUBBLY’: Cheryl Enright of Burlingame was so “ecstatic” when California reopened Tuesday that she wanted to “pop open the bubbly.” Enright shopped maskless, and was “really surprised” to be in the minority. “I think the sooner people do feel that sense of comfort, the quicker we’re all going to feel like we’re living a somewhat normal life again.” 

Reported by Julie Johnson, Sarah Ravani, Jessica Flores, Ricardo Cano and Nanette Asimov. Graphics by John Blanchard and Mike Massa.