A look at when people can take protective masks off

We’ve been wearing masks during the pandemic for months and months now, so we looked at when we can take them off.

As more people get vaccinated, many wonder when mask mandates will go away.

“Now that we got one of our shots, we’re probably going to not wear our mask much at all anymore,” Mark Pierce said.

Pierce wants his face to be free as COVID-19 cases decline. He says rules should too.

“We’re just really fortunate to live in Florida where our governor has some common sense,” Pierce said.

We did speak to people who explained their loved ones worried about her visiting Florida because of fewer constraints during the pandemic.

“What we don’t have is a totally clear understanding yet is whether the vaccine is infection preventing,” said Dr. David Lindner, the director of the COVID-19 response team at NCH Healthcare System.

Lindner says the key is how quickly the population can administer vaccines.

“Once we get to the level where we have a sufficient number of people who have been vaccinated,” Lindner said. “And that we don’t have a variant that is rendering previous infections, at that point in time, that’s when masks are going to calm down wholesale.”

While medical experts have different opinions, Dr. Anthony Fauci says it’s possible masks will remain necessary until 2022.

Some stores in Collier County don’t plan to take signs down at least until the summer.

“You could say, ‘I got vaccinated; I don’t need to wear a mask,’” said Heather Neils at Silver Eagle Gallery. “But how is anyone going to actually be able to know if you’ve been vaccinated or not? How are we going to control that?”