To mask or not to mask? That’s now the question, at least for Michiganders who’ve followed official guidelines.
This week might be the tipping point. It could be the moment when many of us decide to start going out in public without a mask, saying to heck with the virus. Then again, it might be when we stick to this simple precaution — a square of cloth or paper that’s become a badge of courtesy, even civic-mindedness.
More and more, we’re hearing it’s safe to be mask-free if we’ve been fully vaccinated for at least two weeks. And with the onset of hot weather, masks are more annoying than ever.
Yet, as of Thursday, state health officials repeated their advice for teachers and students to mask up, and for others to do so in congested areas. Also Thursday, health officials said 57% of Michiganders had been vaccinated, well below the 80% experts want — and may never achieve.
To see where metro Detroiters and some who live farther out stand at this tipping point, the Free Press sent more than a dozen reporters and photographers around Wednesday and Thursday, asking simple questions, like: “How do you feel about masks? Are you done with them? Or will you keep masking up, and why?”
The range of answers we heard reflects the confusion and concern, and the longing for normal lives, that most everyone is feeling as we approach the midpoint of this pandemic’s second year.
Metro Detroiters share feelings on masks after COVID-19 rule changes
To mask or not to mask? That’s now the question, at least for Michiganders who’ve followed official guidelines.
Detroit Free Press
There’s no state or federal law about masking-up while you fish. But this fisherman in Detroit was taking no chances.
Willie Green got vaccinated weeks ago. While watching his lines this week at the waterfront railing of Alfred Brush Ford Park, right at the head of the Detroit River, he was socializing mainly with his wife, also vaccinated.
Willie Green, 71 of Detroit.Eric Seals, Detroit Free Press
Still, a reporter could see from a distance that Green had a mask at the ready, tucked under his chin. When the Free Press approached, he moved it up over his nose and mouth. Why?
“I think it’s still too early to stop wearing your mask,” said Green, 71, of Detroit, a retired foundry worker.
“A lot of people ain’t never been vaccinated. You don’t know how many ain’t been vaccinated. So I’m just going to keep my mask on, just to be safe,” he said.
A few yards upstream, his wife, Katie Green, was minding more poles. She’d pulled up her mask, too, after a reporter and photographer joined the couple. The couple wear their masks whenever they shop, as well as at church.
A stone’s throw away, other anglers had lines in the river. Sunshine sparkled on the water, and the pandemic seemed light years away. Still, the Greens were ready to catch silver bass, not COVID-19.
At Pointe Autotech on Detroit’s east side, owner Mike Murphy doesn’t wear a mask. Correction: He wears a mask “with an elderly customer that requests that I wear a mask.”
The rest of the time? No mask. And no masks on his staff.
Murphy, 36, of St. Clair Shores said he’s fine with those who choose to mask up, emphasis on the word choose. He doesn’t like government telling him what to do.
“I don’t look sideways at people who wear one, and I don’t look sideways at people who don’t,” he said. What he doesn’t like is how “they’ve made this virus into a political statement.” He said he doesn’t see the benefits of masking up.
Mike Murphy, 36, of St. Clair Shores.Eric Seals, Detroit Free Press
“There are plenty of other states that do not require you to wear a mask and they’re doing just fine,” he said, taking a break from a busy schedule that usually means six days a week of wrenching cars.
Like many Americans early on in the pandemic, Murphy diligently wore a mask when the threat was new.
“The first six months of it, I abided by all the rules that they suggested, and after a certain amount of time I let nature run its course,” he said.
Nature chose to give him a dose of COVID-19. He missed a week of work. Now, he’s back. But he won’t get vaccinated, saying simply: “I don’t trust it.”
In the huge parking lot of Macomb Mall, one couple from St. Clair Shores had masks at the ready as they headed out of the sun toward shopping at Hobby Lobby, the craft and home decor store in Roseville.
Joseph Fabian, 75, and his wife Maryann Fabian, 78, said they take their masks shopping but they’re wearing the facial coverings less and less, ever since getting vaccinated in February.
Maryann Fabian, 76, of St. Clair Shores.Eric Seals, Detroit Free Press
“I prefer not to wear it,” Maryann Fabian said. The heat from her breath irritates a mild facial skin condition she has, she said, as the afternoon temperature hit 80. The couple, married 41 years, have five adult children.
Earlier on that weekday, they’d shopped outdoors at a nursery and didn’t mask up.
“If I can get away without it, I love it,” she said.
The Vapor Shoppe in Clinton Township is part of a chain of nine branches around metro Detroit, selling smoking and vaping products, many of which were nonexistent two decades ago.
Electronic cigarettes, which simulate smoking tobacco but use vaporized nicotine instead of smoke, were invented in 2003. And the store has an abundant stock of products for consuming marijuana, including water pipes and cigarette papers.
All are on display in the spotless shop where Thomas Dunn, 22, of Southfield was at the counter this week — without a mask — at a time when there were no customers. But Dunn quickly put on a mask when a reporter approached. He explained why.
Thomas Dunn, 22, of Southfield.Eric Seals, Detroit Free Press
“Wearing a mask is required here. So we do follow the rules. … Everybody has their own differences with the mask and everything, but overall we just follow the protocol of the state of Michigan,” he said.
That goes for his personal life, too, even though he has been vaccinated.
“Every time I go out if I go to the store, haircut, grocery store or anything like that — I’m always wearing a mask.
Mike Trudel, 26, of Sterling Heights is a manager at the 20-screen MJR Digital Cinema theater, also in Sterling Heights.
The movie business has been slow.
“People don’t even know we’re open yet,” Trudel said.
Masks are definitely required at his job, on customers as well as employees. According to the MJR website, Trudel’s employer has adopted an industry-wide list of pandemic rules called CinemaSafe Protocols. They go beyond masking up to include staggered seating that separates patrons who aren’t attending together, special precautions at pay booths as well as concession stands, and incessant rounds of cleaning and disinfection between shows.
Mike Trudel, 26, of Sterling Heights.Eric Seals, Detroit Free Press
On a weekday afternoon, however, Trudel was mask-less as he got ready to take a break at Rammler Golf Club. The 18-hole course opened in 1929, when the area was known as Sterling Township, with much of it devoted to rhubarb farms, according to an online history site. At the golf club, a sunny tableaux of century-old trees and bright sports attire made the pandemic seem far away. No one in sight, including groups of kids taking golf lessons, wore a mask.
Trudel, who said he got his second COVID-19 shot a month ago, wasn’t planning to fight that trend.
“I think it’s an OK thing not to wear ‘em outside,” he said. He added that golfers are “pretty spread out around here, especially when we’re hitting our balls a couple fairways over.”
So, what about going into the clubhouse for lunch? He probably wouldn’t mask up there, either.
“I think I’ll be fine in there. I have no issue doing that,” he said.
Krystal Conboy, 34, of St. Clair Shores.Kimberly P. Mitchell, Detroit Free Press
For Craig and Krystal Conboy of St. Clair Shores, the latest mask rules from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention won’t change much for them. The couple, both 34, are fully vaccinated, but with two kids under the vaccine eligibility age of 12, Krystal said her family’s masks are staying put.
“We’re still wearing them, at the very least to support them in wearing them,” Krystal said, standing by her bike on a sunny afternoon in Detroit.
But the new CDC rules will mean more mask-less people, and the Conboys said they’re worried that a “good faith effort” from businesses to ensure only the vaccinated are uncovered won’t be enough.
“It’s not like there’s a tattoo I have saying I’m vaccinated,” Krystal said. “People can lie, and they have been lying.”
Craig Conboy, 34, of St. Clair Shores.Kimberly P. Mitchell, Detroit Free Press
Craig said that enforcing the mask mandates has been “a problem all along,” and politicians fanning the fire have led to some finger-pointing.
Some have argued that the government’s requirement of face coverings is a First Amendment violation.
“You don’t have the right to free speech to yell fire in a crowded theater, and nobody seems to have a problem with that, because it’s in the public’s best interest,” Craig said, posing the question of why COVID-19 precautions are any different.
Vincent Saaid, 31, of Southfield.Kimberly P. Mitchell, Detroit Free Press
For 31-year-old Vincent Saaid of Southfield, masks are more of a safety blanket and secondary precaution than anything else. So the CDC’s relaxed mandates felt like a step in the right direction to him.
However, one thing bothered Saaid about the new rulings. Why was the mandate tied to a person’s vaccination status, something he said was a “very intimate and personal decision?” And since it is difficult to differentiate between those with shots and those without, the mandates leave plenty of opportunity for people to lie, Vincent said.
The agency’s rulings continue to allow businesses to require extra caution in their private spaces, which Saaid said he doesn’t take issue with.
“For instance, I volunteer at my church a lot, and as an example for others to keep their mask on, I always kept my mask on just to make sure that if one person feels more comfortable with a mask, by all means,” Saaid said, as he sat on a bench in Detroit.
But with summer approaching and COVID-19 numbers dwindling, Saaid said he hopes to return to a mask-less Michigan soon.
“A year and a half in, and we might be able to get back to normal-ish lives,” Saaid said. “I’ll be excited when I can walk anywhere without seeing a mask as a mandate.”
Annette Day, 60, of Southfield.Kyla L. Wright
Annette Day, 60, of Southfield has received one vaccine dose, and plans to “absolutely” remain masked, even when she’s fully vaccinated.
“The mask is really still helping you even if you’re vaccinated and you’re around people that you don’t know if they’re vaccinated or not,” Day said, as she sat on the patio of her Southfield home.
Day is reluctant to remove her mask in public places such as grocery stores because the mandate, in her view, was lifted too quickly. This raises more questions for her, considering Michiganders are still contracting the virus, and also because others still aren’t getting vaccinated.
Dr. Earl Bogrow, 67, of Huntington Woods.Kyla L. Wright
Earl Bogrow, 67, of Huntington Woods, will remain masked in public and at work, something he has been doing for over 42 years as a dentist.
While at home and around his inner circle of family and friends whom he refers to as his “pod,” he is comfortable being unmasked. Bogrow’s main reason to remain masked is because of his profession and being around multiple people daily.
“I’m a health care provider, I don’t want to be a carrier just in case I’m in contact with people and I want to protect myself and I want to protect my patients,” said Bogrow, who wore a mask and face shield sitting in his Southfield dentist office. “I don’t see how wearing a mask can hurt, it can only help. …
“The dental profession has learned over the years from when HIV became prevalent, to where we started to wear masks and gloves,” said Bogrow. “This is just the next step and barrier to prevent ourselves and our patients from getting any kind of viruses.”
Johnny Powell, 63, of Detroit.Kimberly P. Mitchell, Detroit Free Press
Johnny Powell, 63, of Detroit said his mask is staying on until he’s comfortable without it, however, the CDC rules, especially since people’s vaccine statuses are not clear to the public.
Powell was one of the first in his social circles to get vaccinated, and he’d been telling his friends to join him since the beginning.
“When I first got my shot, I would tell people, ‘you know, get the shot,’ and they’d tell me, ‘Oh, you’re just saying that because you got the shot.’ ’’ Powell said, as he sat on a bench in Detroit, mask up. “No. I’m saying that because I love you.”
After a nine-month hiatus, Powell has started going back to downtown Detroit again, and what he sees has him worried. Kids huddled together, mask-less, in crowded streets.
People with what Powell calls a “rebellious attitude” toward public health mandates have fanned the flames of COVID-19 in this Detroiter’s eyes.
“The world is not against you,” he said.
But Powell said he has fully supported the government’s pandemic response.
“I think they’ve done a great job, dealing with what they’ve had to deal with from the beginning.”
Edwina Harper, 31, of Detroit.Nushrat Rahman
Walking out of a CVS in Hamtramck, Edwina Harper, 31, of Detroit, said she plans to keep her mask on in public despite being fully vaccinated. She’s not comfortable with the CDC’s new guidelines loosening mask requirements.
“I feel like you do need a mask because you don’t know what another person has. And everybody’s so close together, but it’s also so hot. … I’m tired of wearing it, but I know we have to.”
The only place she plans to take off her mask: at home.
“I feel more secure, more safe,” she said about her mask. “And they still don’t know everything about this vaccination.”
Harper says she’ll feel safer taking off her mask when more people are vaccinated and COVID-19 cases go down.
Lacey Cody, left, holds her 6-month-old daughter while picnicking at David Shepherd Park in Oak Park, MI with her sister, Tory McClellan, who is holding her 3-month old daughter.Jasmin Barmore
Two sisters picnicking together at David H. Shepherd Park in Oak Park, Tory McClellan, 28, and Lacey Cody, 24, both said they are not vaccinated and are not big on wearing masks either.
“I am a big non-masker,” said McClellan, who lives in Romulus. “I do not have the vaccine and I am fine. I do believe I may have gotten COVID in February when this first started last year … and me and my boyfriend and my son, I believe we all got it, but I’m not sure. But we have been fine ever since. We don’t normally wear masks in store or outside, but if they do ask us in the store and they require it we will put on a mask, but we don’t necessarily like that.”
McClellan said she is against a lot of vaccines period, but the main reason she’d “rather not mask” is because wearing it causes difficulty with her breathing and she also believes our immune systems need to build against the COVID-19 virus on their own.
For McClellan’s younger sister, while she, too, prefers to not wear a mask, she will do it to make other people feel comfortable, she said.
“I don’t mind wearing my mask or not wearing it, said Cody, who lives in Shelby Township. “I would prefer not to wear it, but I still go in a store and I will put my mask on because I want to do what helps make other people feel comfortable.”
Cori Jackson, 34, of Hamtramck.Nushrat Rahman
Cori Jackson says the CDC’s decision to loosen mask guidelines is “too much, too early.” He would have preferred “baby steps.”
“I get them wanting to show that we’re making some type of progress, but I’m just still not comfortable yet — vaccinated or not. I’m just kind of not over it,” said Jackson, 34, of Hamtramck, who had yet to be vaccinated but had an appointment scheduled.
There’s no way to tell whether people are vaccinated, he said. No one is walking around with a sticker, and nor should they have to, Jackson added. He plans to keep his mask on to remain respectful of people around him.
Jackson, just having stepped out a grocery store in Hamtramck, said he has noticed that people in his community are keeping their masks on.
“I haven’t seen too much shedding of the masks, because I kind of feel like people are still … just trying to respect everybody else’s space,” he said.
Kenneth Waites, 55, of Detroit.Nushrat Rahman
The more people get vaccinated, the more masks should come off, said Kenneth Waites, 55, of Detroit. Still, Waites, who had received one vaccine dose, plans to keep his mask on in certain areas, such as grocery stores and other indoor spaces because people may be sneezing or coughing.
Nothing about the new guidelines confused him, he said. But as the temperature rises, “it’s going to be a little uncomfortable breathing,” he said, outside of a dollar store in Hamtramck.
“I like the changes,” he said about the CDC’s new rules, though he doesn’t plan on ditching his mask entirely. “Go get your shots. Help your family, help the community, help the world.”
Kola Nikprelaj, 50, of Hamtramck.Nushrat Rahman
Stepping out of Al-Haramain International Food, a grocery store in Hamtramck, Kola Nikprelaj wore two masks and plastic gloves. The 50-year-old Hamtramck resident, who works as a host at a downtown Detroit restaurant, says he’ll continue wearing a mask in public. In fact, he’ll keep his double mask.
The restaurant Nikprelaj works at is operating at half capacity and customers are asked to wear masks. He said he’s comfortable with the CDC’s recommendation because there are vaccines now.
“I do trust doctors. I do trust the sciences,” he said.
Still, whether he’s working or shopping, it’s hard to tell who is vaccinated and who is not, he said. He wishes there was a law to ask whether people have been vaccinated but acknowledged that would be difficult to enforce in public places.
“My No. 1 issue for me is to protect myself, No. 2, the people I’m around. This is my community. I live here almost all my life,” said Nikprelaj, who has been fully vaccinated since March.
Roy Feldman, 70, of Hamtramck.Nushrat Rahman
The CDC could have loosened up its guidelines sooner, said Roy Feldman as he closed up Dos Locos Tacos, a restaurant on Joseph Campau Avenue in Hamtramck. When employees serve customers, they wear a mask, but among themselves, they take them off because everyone is vaccinated, he said. They ask customers whether they’ve been vaccinated but they don’t demand they prove it, he added.
“I’m all for not wearing a mask as much as possible,” said Feldman, who wasn’t wearing a mask but had one in his back pocket. He enjoys talking to people, and “talking to people with a mask on is pretty much half the experience.” He feels freer now.
Feldman, 70, of Hamtramck, got vaccinated as soon as he could.
“I’m in that older health risk group. I haven’t caught it yet and I come into contact with a great deal of people. I wear the mask when they wanted us to wear the mask. But now I’m pretty confident in the CDC recommendations that the vaccine is really, really good.”
Janet Greer, 80, of Lansing.Paul Egan, Detroit Free Press
Janet Greer, 80, a retired state worker in Lansing, said she is fully vaccinated and is comfortable with new CDC and state guidelines saying she is not required to wear a mask outdoors and not required to wear one indoors either, unless requested by the property owner.
Any confusion “might be with myself, whether or not I feel comfortable not wearing a mask,” Greer said at a Lansing shopping center. However, “I have to have confidence that I’ve received the shots and they’re valid and they protect me.”
Greer said many stores still require mask wearing to enter and she always complies with such requests. “But when I’m outdoors, I don’t,” she said.
She said she is sure it must be difficult for store owners and employees to know whether customers who are not wearing a mask have been vaccinated.
She said she hopes the situation can return to as close to normal as possible soon, but cautioned, “We’re going to be looking at a new normal. We just have to change with the times. Change is not easy.”
Allison Findley, 20, of Lansing.Paul Egan, Detroit Free Press
Allison Findley, 20, a Lansing Community College student who lives in Lansing, said she is fully vaccinated and likes the fact a mask is no longer required in many circumstances for people who have had their shots.
Still, Findley said, she wears her mask everywhere, “just to still keep myself safe, because I’ve heard you can still get COVID, and also to keep others safe as well.”
Findley said outside a Lansing pet store she has not noticed any confusion since the face mask requirements were relaxed, but she said she is sure the situation is not an easy one for store owners and employees.
Asked when she thinks the situation will return to normal, Findley said: “It probably won’t be for a long time,” but she is glad it appears that things are beginning to slowly trend that way.
Jennie Knorr, 76, of Birmingham.Jennifer Dixon
Jennie Knorr, a 76-year-old resident of Birmingham, was wearing a mask Wednesday as she sat on a bench in Barnum Park near her home. She said she wears the mask outdoors because “I don’t feel safe yet.”
“I don’t know what to believe when the CDC comes out and changes (its) mind every 5 minutes or so,” Knorr said.
Although she has been vaccinated, Knorr said she doesn’t feel safe without her mask, “unless I’m with my pod of friends.”
She said she hasn’t had a cold or the flu, or any other illness, for the past year and said her mask may be the reason.
Peter Young, 37, of Waterford.Jennifer Dixon
Peter Young, a 37-year-old Waterford resident, said he will continue to wear a mask when he is indoors.
“I will wear masks until people in the service industry no longer have to wear masks. I think it’s good to do that in solidarity with them. They’ve gone through quite a bit and I also work in the service industry, for now,” he said Wednesday while sitting in Birmingham’s Shain Park.
He called the guidance on masks from the state and federal government “haphazard, not very well thought out. I think that the CDC is starting to lose credibility.”
Young said he is vaccinated.
Paul Hester Jr., 67, of Southfield.Jennifer Dixon
Paul Hester Jr., a 67-year-old resident of Southfield, said that while the CDC has relaxed its mask guidance, “I’m still going to wear my mask till its confirmed that everyone, at least 90% of the people, have been vaccinated.”
He said he keeps his mask in the pocket of his pants, and will put it on when outdoors if he’s coming into a crowd.
“Normally, if I’m outdoors, in a park setting, I will not have my mask on,” Hester said while at Shain Park in Birmingham on Wednesday.
Beverly McCrackins, 60, of Detroit.Kimberly P. Mitchell, Detroit Free Press
Detroit Public Schools Community District employee and lifelong Detroiter Beverly McCrackins, 60, plans to keep wearing her mask inside through the end of the year.
“I’m fully vaccinated, but I know everybody isn’t and you don’t know who is and who isn’t,” she said while wearing a gray cloth mask in the lobby of the Fisher Building where she works. But she’s not upset with those who haven’t been vaccinated going maskless.
“I’m OK with it because that’s their decision, and if they decide they don’t want to wear masks, if they don’t want to have a vaccination, that’s on them. I can only protect me,” she said.
Khaled Marei, 28, of Detroit.Kimberly P. Mitchell, Detroit Free Press
Khaled Marei, a 28-year-old architect, moved four months ago to Detroit from Oregon, where he said the masking rules weren’t as strict.
“Here, it’s more like safer for health but still you don’t know who’s carrying it and who’s not. COVID is tricky,” he said. He is fully vaccinated and after Michigan changed its mask guidance over the weekend, he is no longer wearing a mask at work.
“Today is my first day without the mask. It feels good,” he said Thursday after grabbing a coffee in the Fisher Building in Detroit before heading back to his desk. “But still I’m panicking, you know? I’m still curious if I’m doing something wrong or right.”
He said he will still wear his mask at the grocery store, restaurants or in crowded areas. “I’m not taking the full risk,” he said. “It’s still there in specific places.”
While he said the latest COVID-19 trends and vaccination rates are encouraging, the prospect of unvaccinated people wearing masks makes him nervous. “Sometimes you just wish that everyone is having the vaccine,” he said.
Jamika Jackson, 47, of Detroit.Kimberly P. Mitchell, Detroit Free Press
Jamika Jackson, 47, of Detroit, said she will continue to mask up because she doesn’t plan to get vaccinated.
“I look at it like you couldn’t find a cure for cancer, you couldn’t find a cure for AIDS but you came up with this, in my eyes, overnight and it’s just not for me,” she said while setting up for lunch hour at The Kitchen by Cooking with Que on Woodward Avenue where she works as a hostess.
Turning down an opportunity to get vaccinated and knowing that “COVID is still out here,” she said she won’t take her mask off anytime soon. “I’ve been wearing it for the last year or so. I’m used to it now at this point.”
Jackson prefers grocery shopping and going into stores where everybody is wearing a mask but has noticed fewer people wearing masks since the guidance changed last weekend. “That’s something I can’t control,” she said.
“I just hope everybody continue to do what they have to do so we can get rid of this crazy disease and kind of go back to normal.”
Ety Komalasari, 50, of Detroit.Kimberly P. Mitchell, Detroit Free Press
Ety Komalasari, 50, of Detroit, hasn’t gotten vaccinated and will continue to wear a mask even in settings where it’s not required.
“Especially in public places, I always wear a mask,” she said while standing at Woodward Avenue and West Grand Boulevard.
She said she is currently looking for a job and would get vaccinated if that’s required by her new employer. She said she doesn’t spend too much outside the house but when she sees people who aren’t wearing a mask, she keeps her distance.
She is encouraged by the current trajectory of COVID-19 cases and deaths but said “wearing a mask is just one way to prevent it getting worse.”
If she gets vaccinated, she’s not sure she’ll be ready to ditch her mask. She said she’ll want to see what the COVID-19 trends look like at that point.
Wayne County Commissioner Jonathan Kinloch, 51, of Detroit, said he doesn’t like masks but it’s the “new norm” and will still be wearing them.
Jonathan Kinloch, 51, of Detroit.Christine MacDonald
“I am wearing a mask because we don’t know if individuals have been infected,” Kinloch said, inside a Madison Heights restaurant. “This is real. I don’t understand why people don’t understand that this is real. These numbers in the emergency rooms, people are still going to the hospital. People are still dying.”
Kinloch said he has family members who have died after contracting COVID-19. He was vaccinated but said because so many others aren’t, he believes wearing masks still is important.
“It’s a safety piece that you are going to have to get used to wearing on a day-to-day basis as far as I am concerned,” Kinloch said. “I know that the CDC and other governmental entities are saying that it’s OK to not wear the mask but you don’t know who actually has been vaccinated. We still don’t have a real time way of knowing if individuals sitting or standing next to us, whether or not they have … the COVID-19 virus. For me, I don’t want to get sick.”
Ashley Hight, 31, of Warren.Christine MacDonald
Ashley Hight, 31, of Warren, said she is glad recommendations are loosening on masks for those who are vaccinated, in part because she doesn’t believe research showing that they make indoor spaces safer.
She said she won’t be wearing masks in public places, even though she doesn’t plan on getting vaccinated.
“I feel like it’s your own right,” Hight said, before heading into a Walmart in Warren with her three young children. “We are supposed to be free and I think it’s up to the person and their own take on what’s going on.”
“My son he has asthma. … I am not comfortable sending him (to school wearing a mask) because he can’t breathe.”
She said she understands some of the recommended precautions help avoid COVID-19, but believes masking up is pointless.
“If you wash your hands and you follow the guidelines to protect your own self, then I don’t see how wearing a mask is not spreading anything,” Hight said. “A mask really doesn’t do anything but mask up your face.”
Karla Bole of Birmingham.Lily Altavena/Detroit Free Press
A mask hanging off her ear, Karla Bole waited for a haircut in downtown Ferndale on Thursday morning. The changing guidance over masks sparked optimism for the Birmingham resident, but she was apprehensive to see more people ditch their masks.
“It does make me a little nervous, and I’m not sure everyone who has been vaccinated and hasn’t been vaccinated will necessarily follow the rules,” she said.
Bole is vaccinated. She said she feels comfortable going without a mask with people she knows and trusts.
But she’ll still don the mask on trips to the store and other public places, including haircuts, she said.
“I still plan on wearing it where I need to,” she said.
Deanna Caver, 48, of Redford Township.Lily Altavena/Detroit Free Press
At The Office coffee shop on Thursday morning in Royal Oak, Deanna Caver said she felt comfortable removing her mask because there were few people at the café.
Caver, 48, is fully vaccinated. Location matters when she considers whether she’s OK taking her mask off.
“It depends on where I am,” she said.
At a public place jammed with people, Caver said she’ll likely keep the mask on. But in a group of friends who are all vaccinated, a mask feels less like a necessity. Mostly, she wants to make sure everyone agrees with the decision to remove masks.
“It depends on the comfort level of the people there,” she said. “I can tell by the energy, the body vibe, whether or not people feel comfortable enough to take off a mask or not.”
Adrian Teague, 17, of Detroit.Christine MacDonald
Adrian Teague, 17, of Detroit removed his mask while waiting for the bus outside at the 8 Mile and Woodward shopping center this week. But he said whenever he is indoors, he still wears one for safety despite the new recommendations.
“Inside, I really think we should still wear the mask just because … there is still COVID going around and cases and … people are still getting sick,” Teague said. “I have become accustomed to it because a few of my friends, they contracted COVID.
“I am just going to take the precaution.”
Teague said he won’t feel comfortable changing the habit any time soon.
“It will probably be a year from now when everything is calmed down but for now I am just going to wear my mask,” Teague said.
Clarence Baker, 63, of Detroit.J.C. Reindl, Detroit Free Press
Roughly one of every five people who were walking around outside in Midtown Detroit at midday Thursday was wearing a face mask, including Clarence Baker.
Baker, 63, said that even though he was vaccinated with the one-and-done Johnson & Johnson shot, he feels that COVID-19 case numbers are still too high to completely end mask use.
“It’s one of those things that transmits safety to somebody else, and also keeps me (safe) as far as distance and all of that,” said Baker, who also lives in the city. “I’m going to hedge my bets and continue to wear the mask until we get down to (a lower) infection rate.”
Shayna Petit, 33, of Detroit.J.C. Reindl, Detroit Free Press
Shayna Petit, 33, who also was fully vaccinated, wasn’t wearing a mask as she walked her dog outside in Midtown Detroit.
“I’ve still been wearing my mask indoors, especially when I don’t know who I’m around. I’m only taking off my mask around people I know are vaccinated,” she said. “I don’t want to put anyone at risk who is immunocompromised or can’t get vaccinated or is around kids who can’t get vaccinated.”
Petit said she still carries a mask with her when she is outdoors, and occasionally will wear it.
“If I walk by a kid or someone who I know probably isn’t vaccinated, I try to put my mask on,” she said. “I actually like having my mask on me at all times anyway, just in case.”
She added, “I’m still kind of uncomfortable about it to be completely honest. I think there’s just a psychological thing about (it). We got so used to wearing them and now it feels funny to just take them off.”
Ingrid McCamey, 58, of Detroit.Gina Kaufman
Ingrid McCamey has been vaccinated against COVID-19, but said that because of coronavirus variants, masks are still needed.
“I wear a mask to keep myself safe and everyone else safe,” the 58-year-old Detroit resident said while downtown Wednesday outside of the Guardian Building, where she said she works as an executive assistant for Wayne County.
McCamey said if she is shopping or in a crowd, for instance, she wears her mask. If she’s walking her dog and there’s no one around, she won’t.
“Walking down the sidewalk if I come up to someone, I’ll put my mask on,” she said. “But most of the time if it’s just me or if people aren’t around me in close proximity, I don’t wear my mask.”
Asked about recent guidance that loosened rules for those have been vaccinated, McCamey said she feels there has been pressure to do so because of turmoil over masks in places like stores. Nationally, there have been reports of confrontations in stores and customers refusing to wear masks.
“I think the safest thing is to wear a mask,” McCamey said. “I will continue to wear a mask until I feel safe.”
Angela Winiarski, 58, of Shelby Township.Gina Kaufman
For some, the sudden shift in mask guidance was quite a change.
“I’m used to seeing everybody with masks and it’s kind of weird looking at them without masks on,” said Shelby Township resident Angela Winiarski.
While walking to a hair appointment in downtown Ferndale on Wednesday, the 58-year-old said because she is vaccinated, she is less concerned with the change. But while she’s more comfortable going without a mask outside, she isn’t quite ready to give up mask wearing indoors.
“I’m walking around with the mask in my hand as opposed to when I get my haircut, I’ll put the mask on, it’s an enclosed environment and still, you know, not sure,” she said.
She said she thinks the new mask guidance relies on everyone being honest about their vaccination status, noting some have been rebellious about wearing masks. “I think that we all know the rebellion’s out there a little bit so we’re a little nervous about everybody being truthful about whether or not they’re eligible to not wear the mask,” Winiarski said.
She said she is “still living the same way we have, being a little cautious until it all ends.”
Jaramys Mosley, 25, of Ypsilanti.Antranik Tavitian, Detroit Free Press
Jaramys Mosley, 25, who is from Ypsilanti but was in Dearborn at the time, said that face masks still help to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, regardless if people are vaccinated or not. She said that Michiganders should stick with the precautions taken against coronavirus that have been in place since last year.
“I feel like a lot of people are going to start taking liberties that they probably shouldn’t,” Mosley said. “It’s lifted for those that are vaccinated, but there’s no way to actually tell the difference unless we start wearing name tags or something really outlandish.”
Mosley, who is almost fully vaccinated, hopes that the coronavirus infection rates will continue to decrease. She wants people to know that there are still people at high risk of getting the virus and that there are people who are afraid to take the vaccine.
“I really want things to return to normalcy,” Mosley said. “I don’t want to have to wear a mask. I don’t want to have to social distance and stay home. But if that’s what I have to do in order to stay safe and keep other people safe too, then I will.”
Ahmad Nasrallah, 17, of Dearborn said once everyone is vaccinated, he will be ready to take off his face mask. He said that people in Dearborn are tired of wearing masks and having to sanitize spaces, so he thinks people will take their masks off.
Ahmad Nasrallah, 17, of Dearborn.Antranik Tavitian, Detroit Free Press
“I’m hoping everything can go back to normal and that we don’t have to worry about no masks, no vaccines, or nothing like that,” Nasrallah said. “Go get vaccinated so this can be all over.”
Sharon Ward, 69, of Detroit.Jasmin Barmore
Sharon Ward, of Detroit, said the only time she removes her mask is if she is out exercising in the park. On this day, Ward was riding her bike through O’Hair Park in Detroit, with her mask removed. But it was close by, sitting right on the top of her handlebars.
“I still mask up when I am in crowds, said Ward, 69, who is fully vaccinated. “I am still leery about not masking because you don’t know when you are in a crowd who is vaccinated and who is not.”
Ward says that she believes everyone should still mask up regardless because “we are still not out of the woods yet.”
Clyde Anderson, 79, of Detroit.Jasmin Barmore
“If I’m outdoors I don’t wear it,” said Clyde Anderson, 79, of Detroit’s west side.
Anderson says he is vaccinated, but he still wears his mask if he goes into a closed building
“I don’t know who got the shot and don’t got the shot,” he said.
Gregory Conner and Mary Conner, Detroit business owners.Jasmin Barmore
A husband and wife who own Now it’s Yours Children’s Boutique in northwest Detroit said that vaccinated or not, everyone is still required to wear their masks when they come into their place of business.
“We want everybody to be safe,” said Gregory Conner, 43. “So that is why we make sure everyone who comes in and patronizes our store are wearing their masks, as well as me and my wife are wearing our masks so that we can protect not only us, but our customers as well.”
Free Press staff writers Lily Altavena, Jasmin Barmore, Jennifer Dixon, Paul Egan, Gina Kaufman, Christine MacDonald, JC Reindl, Chanel Stitt and Kyla Wright contributed to this report. Contact Bill Laitner, who compiled this report, at blaitner@freepress.com
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