Georgians have been urged to wear masks. Despite coronavirus threat, many refuse
On the first day of May, a month and a half into the new coronavirus crisis here, Gov. Brian Kemp issued a statement to “urge all Georgians” to “wear a face covering in public settings.”
“A cloth face covering should be worn whenever people are in a community setting where social distancing may be difficult,” the statement noted, adding that such places might include eateries and grocery stores.
Plenty in the state had long since gotten the message, be it from news outlets or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or elsewhere that wearing a mask might be a good idea to help control the spread of infection. Others, however, have either not heard the suggestion or have chosen not to wear masks.
Some heeding advice
A spot check by a reporter in recent days at stores and restaurants around Macon to see if locals were heeding the advice revealed the many were. At the Bibb County Courthouse, a deputy stationed out front said “it’s about 50-50” whether visitors donned masks.
The general consensus now among health experts is that while a mask may not prevent a wearer from contracting COVID-19, a mask may reduce chances of an infected and possibly asymptomatic wearer spreading the disease.
On a recent afternoon at the home-improvement store Lowe’s on Eisenhower Parkway, most customers were wearing masks.
The same went for people at the county election office and at the region’s poshest mall, the Shoppes at River Crossing.
More than a third of the mall’s 70 or so shops and eateries were still temporarily closed because of the outbreak.
The mall’s website directs visitors to practice social distancing and other safety measures — masks not required — and features the slogan “feel safe, shop happy.”
‘I’m healthy’
Shopper Sandy Reeves, who had driven up from Tifton, was not among the masked. She ventured into, among other places, Belk, Kirkland’s, DSW shoe store and Versona, a women’s boutique.
“I never wear a mask. I wore one to go get my eyes checked. I felt like I was suffocating,” said Reeves, 59, who works for a Tift County freight company.
She said she is careful to wash her hands and not touch her face and to avoid crowds. She carries alcohol-soaked wipes in a handbag.
“The mask, if it makes somebody feel safer, then wear it,” Reeves said.
“My thing is, don’t shut the state down. The big thing was the beaches and the parks. If you shut that down, people tend to congregate in yards and different things like that and it just makes you angry. You feel like you’re being locked down and the government is like big daddy. ... I’ve been free for 59 years and I’m not ready to be told by the government that I can’t go somewhere.”
In stores, she felt comfortable not wearing a mask.
”If they require me to wear a mask,” Reeves said, “I may wear one just for a moment and then get back out.”
She mentioned something that a couple of others in Macon would say when asked about not wearing masks amid the outbreak: “I think that if you’re gonna get it, you’re gonna get it.”
If, she went on, the virus is as contagious “as they say.”
She added, “I want to build the immunity to it. I’m healthy.”
Another mall patron stood around the corner outside Champs Sports. Waiting her turn to go in, Brittany Williams said she wears a mask for her job at Walmart but felt safe without one while shopping Monday.
“I believe you can get the virus through your eyes also,” Williams, of Macon, said. “So if I’m gonna cover up my face, I need to cover up my whole entire face.”
Outside the Simply Mac computer mart, customer Demetress Whitby sat waiting her turn to go in.
Whitby, 48, had on a mask.
She said some people who venture out not wearing face coverings seem to act as if the virus has “just disappeared.”
”I really think everyone should wear the masks for the protection not only of themselves (but) for other individuals,” Whitby said.
‘If I’m going to catch it, I’ll catch it’
In downtown Macon on Tuesday at the corner of Third and Cherry streets, many in a lunch-hour crowd of a dozen or so dining inside and outside Spud Dogs hot dog diner were not sporting masks.
Jarrett Corley, of Barnesville, who does electrical work was on his lunch break. He said he doesn’t sense the need to wear a mask while in public.
Of the pandemic, he said, “I think social media is what keeps everybody nervous. My belief is if it was as rough as the media portrayed it, you’d have Home Depot and Lowe’s and Walmart employees falling over by the hundreds.”
At the next table over on the sidewalk overlooking Cherry, Nate Newton, one of Corley’s co-workers, was also maskless.
“I don’t really what the mask would do besides keep it in,” Newton said of the virus. “As far as spreading it, I mean, I think it’s more of a hand-mouth type thing.”
He said going into a restaurant with other people around without a face covering didn’t bother him.
“If I’m gonna catch it,” Newton said, “I’m gonna catch it.”
This story was originally published May 24, 2020 at 7:00 AM.