Mayor Baldwin should wait on easing Raleigh’s mask mandate

If Wake County has an image of how it’s fighting the spread of COVID-19, it could be this: A face wearing a mask with the nose uncovered.

That’s because half the county has an indoor mask mandate and half doesn’t. You have to wear a mask in indoor public spaces in Raleigh, Garner, Knightdale, Morrisville, Zebulon, Rolesville and unincorporated parts of the county. There is no mask mandate in Apex, Cary, Fuquay-Varnia, Wake Forest and Wendell.

This spotty approach is further complicated by exemptions from the mask mandates for people who are actively eating and drinking. That leaves many people without masks in bars and restaurants and some indoor sports events.

All of this has Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin wondering: What’s the point? She has asked city staff to assess whether the city’s mandate can be relaxed for small businesses and gyms.

“If people can go to Cary without a mask and come back to Raleigh, what are we really achieving?” she said. “If we had everybody in Wake with a mask mandate, it would be so much easier because there wouldn’t be so much confusion.”

Sig Hutchinson, chairman of the Wake County Board of Commissioners, said he supports mask mandates, but whether to impose one is up to the municipalities. “I support all our mayors and the decisions they make,” he said.

City staffers have told Baldwin that “small businesses” would be too hard to define for purposes of exemptions. She plans to stick with the citywide mask mandate into next year, but she is still weighing whether it should be lifted for gyms.

“Here’s my dilemma,” Baldwin told the Editorial Board. “I get emails from folks who say, ‘I support the mask mandate, but I can’t worknout in a gym with a mask on. I’m gaining weight.’ People’s mental and physical health is suffering because of this.”

Baldwin seems to have picked an odd time to think of relaxing the mandate. The arrival of the omicron variant and the holidays are causing COVID cases to spike.

In some ways, the mandate doesn’t matter. Raleigh’s mask mandate isn’t really mandatory. There is no aggressive enforcement. Baldwin said city staffers recently visited 12 gyms to assess mask compliance. Only four were following the mandate.

Whether gyms comply or not, Raleigh should keep its mandate and urge businesses to comply. Wearing a mask is a simple precaution that reduces infections. Dropping the mandate for gyms will only add to the confusion and undercut those businesses and patrons who are making an effort to comply.

But the strongest protection against COVID is not a cloth across the face, but a shot in the arm. People who refuse to get vaccinated are prolonging the need for masks and other other COVID-related disruptions.

Hutchinson said, “I know people are getting weary of it and we can’t keep (the mandate) on forever. We are just managing it as best we can. More than anything, people need to get vaccinated.”

Baldwin agreed. “The big thing with all of this is people getting vaccinated,” she said. “That is going to stop the spread and that is what is going to enable us to get back to normal.”

Meanwhile, Raleigh’s mayor is struggling to find a balance between protecting the public’s health and straining the public’s tolerance.

“This is keeping me awake at night,” she said. “People are sick of wearing masks. And they’re angry. And no matter what I do, somebody is not going to be happy.”

With cases spiking, Baldwin would do well to wait on putting further holes in the city’s mask mandate.