Paul Bass Photo
Edible Couture’s Tisha Hudson: Too “complicated” to pivot yet.
Mask Liberation Day arrived — but you wouldn’t have known it on some city sidewalks or at local businesses like Rayon Market.
Under a statewide gubernatorial order, the owner of Rayon, a bodega at Edgewood and Orchard, no longer had to worry Wednesday about employees or shoppers wearing masks, if they are fully vaccinated (two weeks past their final shot). The owner no longer has to worry about occupancy limits. No one does, except for large indoor events with many unvaccinated people present.
But the signs outside Rayon Market Wednesday (pictured at right) remained the same as before during the Covid-19 pandemic. Two read: “No mask no service.” No more five shoppers allowed inside at a time.
Behind the clear cashier’s partition, owner Diyar Saeed (pictured above) slipped on a mask and said he’s not yet ready to change the rules. (He said his mask had been off because he was cooking.) “You don’t know who has what. So many people come from different places,” he said.
Moments later, Saeed slipped back out of sight. Another worker served two customers (at left) who came in and ordered loosies. The worker didn’t wear a mask. Neither did the customers. They said they haven’t been wearing masks. “I’m vaccinated,” each said. (They declined to be identified.)
By the beverage cooler, Josue Constante (pictured above), a Polar delivery driver, was wearing a mask. He said the lifting of the statewide mandate won’t change that. Plus, he’s still supposed to wear his mask indoors, because he hasn’t gotten vaccinated against Covid-19. And he doesn’t plan to get the vaccine. He worries about vaccine side effects. “I have a friend who’s a driver — he says a year from now, you might turn green.” He hadn’t seen any change in people’s mask decisions along his route Wednesday when the new order took effect.
Outside, student Anna Rullan Buxo (pictured above) was passing Rayon Market on her way downtown. She, too, wore a mask. Even though she’s fully vaccinated. “I’d feel weird without it,” Buxo said. “I’ve been fearful for so long. I’m probably going to be wearing a mask a little while longer,” gradually removing it outdoors, then when gathering with vaccinated close friends.
The state order was lifted after the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) made new recommendations based on new data. The CDC concluded it now had enough information to determine that fully vaccinated people are largely out of danger not only for themselves, but for unknowingly transmitting Covid-19 to others. So basically, outside of transit hubs or big crowds, there’s really no scientific reason to keep on the mask.
Easier decreed than done. Like Buxo, many people find it hard to make an immediate 180-degree pivot after more than a year of dire government warnings.
Even the dean of Yale’s School of Public Health, Sten Vermund, is keeping his mask on in public places, while still agreeing that the new data reveals that he could safely remove it.
Why?
Out of respect for others’ concerns, Vermund said. “I’m concerned about people who are going to be worried about me in a public setting without my mask.”
Also, “after 18 months of conditioning, it’s hard to just throw away your mask,” he observed.
And then there’s the confusion of evolving rules in different venues.
Under the state orders, different stores and other public venues can still set different rules. Which they’re doing.
The new order retains enough exceptions to make keeping track of all the rules a challenge in itself.
Business also aren’t set up to quiz customers on whether they’ve been vaccinated.
Some retailers, like Walmart and Costco, have lifted mask bans. Others have kept them in place.
Under the new state order, individual businesses can maintain mask requirements if they want.
So can local governments. New Haven is keeping the mask mandate in place for both employees and citizens present in City Hall and the 200 Orange St. office building. (The government’s caution stems in part from vaccination rates: as of late week, 52 percent of eligible New Haveners had received first doses of vaccines, with 43 percent receiving second doses.)
Inside the Whalley-Orchard Stop & Shop Wednesday.
Outside the Whalley-Orchard Stop & Shop Wednesday, a new sign went up shortly after noon. It now encourages customers to wear masks. But it’s no longer required. Employees will no longer stop unmasked customers, hand them masks, and request they wear them. The chain is still “strongly encouraging” both shoppers and “associates” (aka hourly labor) to continue to wear masks. Masks are still required when administering or receiving vaccine shots in the pharmacy section.
Inside the store, workers and shoppers alike retained their masks. Cashier Helen Powell was among them, even though she’s fully vaccinated. “I want to make it to 65 next month still living,” she explained. “I’m taking no chances.”
Retail owners, too, need to navigate what’s still a confusing bunch of rules and suggestions. Click here to check out several pages of charts the governor’s office released Wednesday afternoon to help people as well as businesses figure out what to do. You won’t get quizzed on it, thankfully.
Paul Bass Photo
Edible Couture’s Tisha Hudson: Too “complicated” to pivot yet.
“Things are already too complicated for business owners to worry if someone is vaccinated. Things are stressful enough; I’d rather leave it for now,” Tisha Hudson said about why the pre-Wednesday mask rules remain in effect at her Edible Couture shop on Court Street.
“I am fully vaccinated. I plan to keep wearing the mask for a while. It’s become such a habit for me; it would feel strange not to wear it,” said Allegra Ranelli (pictured) as she brought take-out matcha-tea from Orange Street’s G Cafe back to her job on Chapel Street.
G Cafe still had its mask order posted in the window (at left). A barista inside, when asked, said he didn’t know if the order was still in effect. Customer Carla (pictured) above didn’t know about Wednesday’s statewide order, but was glad to hear it.
Fully vaccinated, she had her mask off anyway as she worked on a final paper for an undergraduate class at Yale. She was pleased to hear about the lifting of the mandate. She had already been confused about when she was supposed to wear her face covering inside G Cafe, given that she sat away from other customers and needed to lift her mask to sip coffee.
She returned to New Haven a month ago from her native France, where rules were stricter: “If you weren’t wearing your mask on the street, you paid a 130-euro fine.”
This is actually terrifying. People should be ripping their masks off and celebrating. The amount of conditioning that has gone on is very Orwellian. How do people who "trust science" wander around outdoors with a mask on after being fully vaccinated? How did we end up here? I honestly believe people have become mentally inept. Strange times, but only in pockets of New England, people enjoy fresh air in Florida, and South Carolina, yet cases go up here with stricter mandates. I feel sorry for these people, they've all become hypochondriacs.