Opinion: Masks still needed for virus safety

Soon after health officials waved a magic wand over the state COVID map and turned us all turquoise, it was announced that New Mexico is fully reopening July 1.

It’s so close I can taste it. In fact, just the other day I went to my first sit-down restaurant in months. The least restrictive designation on our color-coded COVID map allowed that to happen — and more is on the way!

After about 15 months of restrictions in New Mexico, the old ways are coming back.

Now we’re pulling out all the stops. Previous travel restrictions are gone and face masks are no longer required for the fully vaccinated. Now we’ve got the restaurants and all other businesses allowed to open at 100% capacity, as can church and all other mass gatherings, both inside and out.

For those who embraced the science, wore their masks and kept their distance throughout this COVID pandemic, a return to “normal” might be an adjustment. Even though I’m vaccinated, I admit to occasionally feeling awkward around maskless people who “get in my space,” especially when I’m maskless myself; and when I’m talking face-to-face with someone wearing a mask I feel I should put mine on as well. If nothing else, it’s a courtesy to those still nervous about catching a deadly disease.

Here in New Mexico, where we’ve now topped 60% of those ages 16 and up who are fully vaccinated, we have the highest percentage of vaccinated residents in the Southwest. We were also locked down the longest — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham declared a health emergency in March 2020. It’s safe to say we’ve been more careful than most states — and, personally, I think it paid off.

Now comes the Delta variant, which is more contagious and hits a lot harder. The most vulnerable ones are those who still aren’t vaccinated. Which brings us to the anti-vaxxers — those who, for one scientifically baseless reason or another, don’t want to get the vaccine. They’re the ones who should be the most nervous about the Delta variant, because they’re the ones mostly likely to get it.

Unfortunately, this pandemic has been politicized since the beginning and it has bled over into vaccinations. According to a Becker’s Hospital Review list based on CDC data-tracker information, the eight most vaccinated states (in percentage) are all along the East Coast, and they all voted for Joe Biden in 2020.

And where are the “red” states? Down below. Nine of the 10 least vaccinated states on Becker’s list went for Donald Trump last year.

This blue-red, vaccinated-unvaccinated reality is also true in New Mexico, where the highest vaccination percentages are in counties that voted for Biden and the lowest percentages went for Trump. At the top of the Department of Health’s county-by-county breakdown is Los Alamos County, with 82.3% fully vaccinated (and where 61.4% voted for Biden), while the bottom spot is held by Roosevelt County, with 29.2% fully vaccinated (and 70.1% voted for Trump).

I wish everyone would get vaccinated, but after more than a year of the nonsense being spewed from the alt-right, I’ve given up on those who can’t see the logic in getting their shots. They’re in their own world, filled with disinformation and a blind belief that their higher power, be it God or Donald Trump, will save them from reality.

Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:

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