I live on the Upper West Side. I am a former Food and Drug Administration associate commissioner, run a not-for-profit public-health policy institute and am a visiting professor at the University of Paris Medical School. Despite my bona fides, I can’t get my neighbors or dog-park acquaintances to relax and unmask themselves.

Welcome to my world, where wearing a surgical mask has replaced wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt as a social-justice signal in post-pandemic America.

My ZIP code is deep blue. “Science is back!” we rejoiced when President Biden was elected. Alas, that doesn’t seem to be true when the science doesn’t match what many of my friends and neighbors want to believe. 

Despite very clear guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Gov. Hochul and Mayor Adams, many of my neighbors want to keep their masks on (which is certainly their privilege), but they don’t want me to take mine off either. And they’re aggressive about it. Withering stares and cutting comments. The lack of respect and embrace of — what else can I call it? — “fake news” is disheartening.

My wife and I are triple-vaccinated and self-test regularly. We live in a low-infection/high-injection zone. Very green by the CDC’s new standard. And yet many in my hood remain wedded to the way things were, as though removing one’s mask is somehow an acknowledgment of victory for anti-science, anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers. Maybe it’s a new form of PTSD. It is certainly Creeping Chicken Little-ism. 

Overprotection & mistrust

But it’s more than just your run-of-the-mill New York City neurosis. There’s a real public-health risk brewing. If we can’t support our friends and neighbors who want to take off their masks when such actions are strongly supported by science, how are we going to get them to put their masks back on should the situation call for it in the future? 

(This is a real possibility. Please don’t shoot the messenger.) 

“I’m still doing my research” was a lame excuse for not getting vaccinated, and it’s a bad excuse for insisting we all keep our masks on.

We cannot “follow the science” when it is convenient or suits our politics or personal belief systems. That leads to bad places. Science is neither blue nor red. Alas, that is inconvenient and uncomfortable for a lot of New York and a lot of America. We need to trust the system and each other. 

Taking off your mask isn’t a victory for “the other side.” It is a public-health victory for all of us. We’ve worked hard for it. We’ve earned it. And our kids have earned it, too.

Removing your mask (where appropriate) and explaining why you are doing so to your friends and neighbors (in a polite and nonjudgmental way), is just as important as explaining the value and urgency of getting vaccinated. It’s supporting science. It’s doing the right thing. It’s helping us all get comfortable with reality. 

Remember reality?

Peter J. Pitts, a former FDA associate commissioner and member of the United States Senior Executive Service, is president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest and a visiting professor at the University of Paris Medical School.