COVID-19 cases are on the rise in LA County. And while hospitalizations have slowly crept up, deaths remain relatively low. According to LA County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer, if LA continues on this trajectory, new case loads could put a strain on hospitals, triggering a return to indoor masking mandates.
While many don’t want to don face coverings again, Kristhy Morales has always kept hers on during work. She’s a server at an upscale chain restaurant in Burbank. She tells KCRW that once customers get to their tables, they often take off their masks, and when she goes to take their orders, she faces pressure to unmask too.
“Somebody will say, ‘Oh, you can take the mask off with me, it's fine.’ Or they are a little more hostile and say, ‘What? I can't understand you.’ And so you speak slowly, enunciating and everything, and it's still a little bit of a tense situation. So just try to take that with a grain of salt and just do your job,” she explains.
Morales points out that due to shift scheduling, she doesn’t work enough hours to qualify for health insurance.
“On one end, we're left out in the cold by our employers, but then we are also facing pressure from customers to take our masks off. And so you're just trying to navigate those two things,” she says. “You're just stuck trying to navigate public health care. And you're also not really sure what COVID is going to be like for you. So you're just out of luck there.”
For other service industry workers, Shriner urges them to wear a mask, especially if they don’t have health care or are immunocompromised,
“You certainly don't want to take the disease home to someone who could really have a very serious outcome. And I think it's important that the public be aware of that. That if your server is wearing a mask, they're protecting themselves, and they're protecting you.”
She adds, “Wearing a mask is a statement saying, ‘I care about you as much as I care about me. I think that they're very effective at preventing transmission. And as a food server, you're hovering over the food or the cocktail that you're bringing to the table. I’d feel better if the serving staff is masked up, then things in their nose don't fall into my food. And I think that might be something you might point out to people.”
Dr. Kimberly Shriner, the director of infectious disease and prevention at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, adds that if an indoor mask mandate returns, she hopes residents will abide by it. “When it rains, we wear a raincoat. When we get into a car, we put on a seatbelt. When we have a surge, we should wear a mask. Are masks unpleasant and sort of alien to our culture? A little bit. They are not harmful. They're very safe, and they will protect you very effectively.”
Still, she sympathizes with people who may be tired of face coverings, acknowledging that they’re yearning for the pre-pandemic life. However, we’ll never go back there “because we've been through this and it's different.”
She adds, “It isn't forever. We'll have a week or two where we have to wear a mask diligently, and then maybe we have a little respite for a while, or we can do our normal activities. You can do normal activities with the mask, so it is unfortunate and it is perhaps inconvenient. But it's life-saving and it’s a very simple, inexpensive thing to do.”