We are free! The CDC has issued an edict that masks are no longer needed almost everywhere. Several corporations have chimed in to modify their policies in response. President Biden almost seems to agree. All over the country, people are freeing up their faces. It is a grand day.

All is not well, though. The masks have become the virtue signal of choice for COVID. For many, the mask is the proof of purity to science and to the acceptance that scientists are smarter than everyone else. We have had to listen to them even when trying to balance contradictory edicts. It was all fine as long a one wore the mask. It protected us and everyone else. The mask was the sign of compliance. Now those masks are gone in a COVID instant.

We need a new signal of virtue. Enter the vaccine.

People must have the vaccine or they are killing Grandma. The vaccine is necessary to go back to school, or attend a concert, or get on a plane. It is our patriotic duty to get vaccinated. Get the vaccine and achieve herd immunity. Most importantly, get the vaccine and ditch the mask.

As with many ideas that seem great at first blush, there is a hair in this ointment. There is a significant intersection among the people who have refused to wear masks unless necessary and those who absolutely refuse the vaccine. This creates a great dilemma.

If I want to signal my virtue that I have gotten the vaccination, I can take off my mask. However, I will then appear to be one of them -- you know, the Grandma killers that did not wear masks. Or I can continue to wear the virtue signal mask, but people with think I have not gotten the virtuous vaccine.

I do not know what to do. Maybe someone on CNN or Dr. Fauci can help me. Or maybe David Hogg is the one who really has the answer:

I feel the need to continue wearing my mask outside even though I’m fully vaccinated because the inconvenience of having to wear a mask is more than worth it to have people not think I’m a conservative 😬

— David Hogg (@davidhogg111) May 14, 2021

IMAGE: Wear your mask PSA. YouTube screengrab. 

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