The United States should have normalized masking after the deadly flu pandemic in 1918. Imagine if Americans knew to put on a mask when COVID hit in 2020 – that might have prevented the country’s colossal infection control failure.

Instead of uniting to beat this rapidly mutating virus that unceasingly takes lives and disables even the young and healthy, some people are misusing their power to try to ban masks. Some politicians and law enforcement officials claim that masks conceal the identities of “criminals,” while masking in reality reflects caring for community safety and masks are a critical mitigation tool for infection control.

Let’s all ask our elected officials to make public health a priority. Nobody should be banned from protecting their health. Rather than banning masks, they should prohibit mask bans!

Mask bans are disability injustice, discrimination, and violation of human rights. They are an ADA issue. No one should be required to disclose reasons they wear a mask. Harassing someone to unmask or justify wearing effective mitigation tools is an intrusion of privacy. Black and brown people and other people of color in general use mitigation tools like masking at higher rates than white people. People of color have experienced more harassment throughout the pandemic for masking. Under any mask ban - even if in theory it incorporates medical mask exemptions – people of color will surely be disproportionately targeted by law enforcement. Everyone should be able to be in public, including to participate in civic action, while masking for safety.

Being forced to remove your mask even briefly creates a chance to get infected. Forcing people to get sick if they try to use public spaces is immoral and raises huge equity issues.

Anti-mask policies and harassment could spur more people to give up masking entirely. Lack of mitigation will lead to more outbreaks of airborne illnesses such as COVID, RSV, flu, measles, and tuberculosis – and increase risk of a deadly new flu pandemic.

The MaskTogetherAmerica community created a letter template for you to raise your voice! Personalize this letter and send it to government officials to ask them to protect our right to mask! Collective action and the layered approach in mitigation are urgently needed.

MaskTogetherAmerica is an advocacy organization created to support public health in 2020. Our volunteers across the U.S. are devoted to educating people about the benefits of wearing masks, testing, getting vaccinated, opening windows, using air filters, doing things outside, remote working and staying home while sick to protect each other from airborne viruses that can kill people and cause chronic illnesses. As an organization, we are committed to stand with the high risk communities facing the ongoing threat of respiratory-acquired infection and struggling to safely access health care and public spaces.  

We’ve compiled information you need to take action besides sending your letter today. We will continue to update this file. Follow us and other advocates. Stay informed. Let’s do this together.

Current vaccines wane very fast and the virus is rapidly mutating from huge volumes of infection. People need to get the booster if they can, but they can still get infected even if they are vaccinated – or if they have had COVID before. If people get sick, whether they test positive or not, they must wear a tight fitting N95 when around others! And the worst part is that more than 40% of people with COVID-19 never show symptoms, evidence shows. Improved ventilation and air filtration reduce the concentration of viruses in indoor spaces, but most buildings, including schools, don’t have ventilation systems that follow the updated standard essential to mitigate transmission of airborne diseases. For these reasons, a well-filtering mask is a critical layer of protection for both the wearers and others around them. (Tell officials how vital masking is!)

You might be able to recover but people are still dying from COVID and flu every day!

• At least 1.2 million Americans have lost their lives to COVID in this pandemic.

• An estimated 17 million people are immunocompromised.

• 1 in 4 U.S. adults, 61 million people, are part of the community with disabilities – and that figure preceded the pandemic’s impact.

• Roughly 75% of U.S. adults are at high risk of severe COVID because of medical conditions, disabilities, and environmental factors.

• An estimated 23 million people in the U.S., including 6 million children, have been affected by Long COVID, with symptoms and conditions that may impact almost any organ in the body.

Studies show that COVID substantially increases people’s risk of autoimmune disease. Many studies show that viral persistence of SARS-CoV-2 can affect your blood and tissues. Even an infection that seems mild may shrink parts of your brain. COVID can change your immune system cells. Proteins and fragments of the virus can set off a continuing immune response and drive inflammation. After COVID infections, some people have immune dysregulation and chronic inflammation, blood clots, or abnormal autoantibodies that lead to autoimmune disorders. Rare cancers are on the rise. Medical experts have observed an increase in late-stage cancers, especially lung, blood, and colon cancer, even in previously healthy individuals. Some scientists believe that COVID-19, particularly Long COVID, could be contributing to higher cancer rates by causing full-body inflammation and genetic changes.

Tracking and reporting of COVID and Long COVID cases would provide essential public warnings. Education for the general public about the combined benefit of vaccination, masking, ventilation, testing, isolation and treatment would spur actions that can greatly reduce the risk of transmission, infection, and post-infection chronic illnesses. Yet our government has cut back on reporting cases, preventive guidance, and public awareness efforts, and has stopped providing underserved Americans with mitigation tools. Even the Bridge Access program that provides free vaccination for uninsured and underinsured people is ending in August.

Under CDC’s recent guidance, employers are pushing staff to return to work even when symptomatic and testing positive. CDC’s recommendation to mask after infection is now widely ignored. Americans need our elected officials to fight for paid sick leave and programs that provide free tools for sickness prevention, instead we are heartbroken to see politicians using ‘fighting crime’ as an excuse to discourage masking, which will further undermine infection control.

Masking is about health equity! We need you to help us fight the widespread denial and minimization of the detrimental impact of spreading sickness. We need to hold our leaders to account! Everyone has a powerful story to share. Personalize the letter and send it. Together we will move mountains.