Last week, a mask ban in Nassau County, New York was signed into law. If I lived just 60 miles east of my New Jersey town, I would be under threat of a fine or jail time every time I left the house.
I’ve been masking consistently in public since 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic began, because I have a kidney transplant and will take immunosuppressant medication for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, my lifesaving medication also makes me more susceptible to infectious diseases like measles, the flu, and Covid-19. Even when people like me are vaccinated against the virus, we are at higher risk of being infected and are more likely to experience adverse health outcomes, including hospitalization and death.
The legislation in Nassau County and elsewhere primarily targets people who wear masks to hide their identity while committing crimes or during public protests, specifically against the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Masks are defined as any facial covering that disguises the face, and facial coverings worn for religious or health reasons are exempt. But people like me, who wear masks for health reasons, are disproportionally affected by these bans even when they include medical exemptions.
That’s because although the Nassau mask ban contains provisions for people who mask for medical reasons, it is up to the police to determine whether someone has a medical reason for masking if they are out in public. This means that enforcing the ban is subjective and will disproportionally impact Black people and people of color, who are more likely to be stopped by police and are also more likely to wear masks to prevent Covid. This is in part because Black and Latinx Americans are more cautious in their approach to the pandemic, reflecting the higher hospitalization and death rates in these communities. The Nassau mask ban as it is written is reminiscent of a “Stop and Frisk” law, which allows police to temporarily detain, question, and search people without a warrant.
This isn’t just localized to Nassau County; mask bans have been proposed or passed in multiple states, including North Carolina, Ohio, and California. For example, in North Carolina, where I lived for six years while completing my doctorate, a state-wide ban was recently passed. Although the final bill also includes a health exemption, it originally prohibited masking even for medical reasons. This medical exemption was only added after strong pushback from disability advocates.
There is also a statewide mask ban under consideration in New York state, where many people in my immediate family live. The bill as it is currently written bans masks not just during protests but also for people engaging in lawful assembly, or a peaceful gathering of more than two people for a lawful purpose, in the state. I’m not an expert on the New York state legislature, so I don’t know how likely it is to pass. But if it does, it means that my parents and I would be violating the law if we did something as banal as go on a walk together outdoors while wearing masks, because the bill allows people to wear masks for medical reasons only during a declared public health emergency. (The federal Covid public health emergency was declared over in 2023.) Again, enforcement of these bans is up to the police, who are not medical experts and who will apply the law unevenly. The right of peaceful assembly is part of the First Amendment, and mask bans are an infringement on everyone’s rights.
That is doubly true for disabled people participating in peaceful protest. Without protests, we would not have the Americans with Disabilities Act. A series of demonstrations beginning at San Francisco in 1977 and concluding in 1990 at the Capitol building’s “Capitol Crawl” helped codify disability rights into law in the United States. At the Capitol Crawl demonstration, 60 people with disabilities, many of them wheelchair users, crawled up the Capitol steps to illustrate structural barriers and to show that disability rights are a civil rights issue. Disabled people have relied on protesting to get our basic needs met. Mask bans don’t just take away our right to protest; they take away our right to peacefully exist in public. They are an infringement on everyone’s rights and are a threat to American democracy.
There is another reason for banning masks: the strong push for people to “return to normal” during the “post-pandemic” era. Masking is a reminder that the pandemic is still ongoing. In the same week that Nassau County passed its mask ban, weekly test positivity in the United States was the highest it has been since February 2022 and continues to climb. The CDC and other public health agencies encourage people to wear masks when respiratory viruses are causing high numbers of infection and illness in the community, especially in congregate or crowded settings. It’s a good idea for everyone to be wearing a mask right now when they are out in public.
People who are immunocompromised are told to wear masks in addition to getting vaccinated, improving air ventilation, and making sure our close contacts also receive the vaccine. But current coverage with the Covid-19 vaccines is low; only 22.3% of adults have received a vaccine dose in the past year. This means that I can’t return to your unmasked “normal.” The new normal includes exposure to a virulent, airborne illness that circulates year-round, with seasonal spikes that correspond to times of high travel and congregate indoor activities.
If masks are banned where I live, I will have to make the choice between endangering my transplant and my health every time I leave the house, or to remain on permanent lockdown in my home. As disability oracle and activist Alice Wong reminds us, mask bans are an extension of “ugly laws,” historical laws and ordinances that prevented disabled people from being in public. We deserve to be seen and to be included in public life. Mask bans are a threat not just to disabled people, but to all of us. It’s never too late to start masking again—to protect not just your health and the health of people around you, but also to protect our fundamental human rights.
Kaitlin Costello is an associate professor of library and information science at the School of Communication & Information at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Costello conducts research and teaches classes on health information, computing and society, and human information behavior.