Here’s how to still safely wear a mask to protect your health if your state has a mask ban. In June of 2024 North Carolina passed it’s mask ban. Other states and cities are now considering mask bans, such as New York and Chicago. In addition, several states have indoor mask bans, including Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Florida, Texas, Arkansas and Arizona, although in some of those states they are not being enforced.
Most states and other entities claim that the reason for instituting mask bans has to do with not giving criminals a way to hide their identity. It’s also true that this makes it so that those who are participating in activities which are not criminal, but which are controversial, such as protesting and demonstrating, going for certain medical procedures, etc., are also unable to hide their identity.
But for our purpose what this means is that those who are at risk for Covid (which is everyone) and who want to protect themselves (which is far fewer people) have had one of the most effective tools for protecting their health – wearing a mask – banned.
However, take heart! Because nearly all of the mask bans and proposed mask bans have an exemption (i.e. an exception) if you really need to wear a mask to protect your health.
Here’s what to do: get a letter and a prescription (so get both if at all possible) from your doctor saying that you are immunocompromised or otherwise at high risk for a severe outcome if exposed to Covid or other viruses, and so are required to mask whenever you are outside of your home and may come into contact with others who may transmit Covid and other viruses to you.
Then carry both the letter and the prescription with you at all times. The reason for getting both is because if you are challenged by an authority (say, a police officer), they may be more swayed by one or the other, or you may be in a jurisdiction that may require one or the other. And even if you are in a jurisdiction with no articulated exemption for health, the officer may not know that and so may be persuaded by the letter and prescription. Plus you can also wave the letter and prescription around and say “ADA!” But do it kindly and not defiantly! (You’re not looking to get arrested, you’re looking to keep yourself safe.)
And finally, in the very unlikely situation that you actually get cited for violating the mask ban, the odds of a judge not dismissing it once presented with your letter and prescription are infinitesimal.
What the Letter to Carry in Locations with Mask Bans Should Say
Your letter should say something along these lines:
To Whom It May Concern,
(YOUR NAME) is a patient under my care. He/She is immunocompromised or otherwise at high risk for a severe outcome if he/she contracts Covid or certain other viruses. He/She should wear a protective medical grade or surgical grade mask whenever he/she is outside their home and likely to come into contact with others or within ten feet of others outside their immediate family.
Signed,
(Your Doctor)
What the Mask Prescription Should Say
On the doctor’s prescription pad should be written some version of the following:
Wear a mask or respirator of N95 or KN95 quality or better whenever outside the home PRN
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