but, just as there is a cost to hepa filters and upgrading ventilation systems and keeping windows open because it makes heating more expensive, there are costs to people being masked, morris said.
“there are environmental costs because you’ve got all this garbage, and there are other costs, which include that people don’t like it, it pisses people off, it makes communication more difficult and it makes recognizing people’s’ faces more difficult — all these things,” he said.
clean indoor air would make interventions like masking less necessary, he said, and there should be a huge focus on that. “to me, that’s very clear.”
the idea of a return to mandatory indoor masking would likely have been unacceptable three months ago, when the weather was warmer and people were just coming out of multiple bad waves of covid-19, morris said.
“if someone said (now), ‘we’re just going to be masking for three weeks and then we’ll stop, we need a bit of a breather for the health-care system,’ then maybe people would say it’s acceptable. maybe. i don’t know.”
if the viral season grows worse in the coming weeks, as many predict it will, if pediatric hospitals that are already cancelling surgeries and redeploying staff become even more swamped, “people might change their beliefs as well, especially if more and more people are getting repeatedly sick,” morris said. those opposed to masking, “may see things differently.”