And then the masks came off.
Sorta.
After more than a year of wearing a mask or maybe two of them, the public was told Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that they could take them off under many circumstances.
That marks the completion of quite a journey. The hundreds of thousands of deaths. The needless politicization of the pandemic that helped send more people to their graves than was necessary. The hope of a vaccine and then the creation of vaccines far superior to anything dreamed of. Eager vaccine takers and those just as eagerly not wanting to get the shot or shots.
And suddenly, we can see each other's faces again. Well, more people's faces, anyway.
There are strings attached to the new CDC advisory on masks, as in, not everyone can ditch their masks just yet.
"Fully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing a mask or physically distancing, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance," the CDC stated on its website.
That presents a problem.
Only some 37% of U.S. citizens have been fully vaccinated or just a little better than one out of three people. Without a vaccine passport to prove whether a person has had the vaccination, no one will actually know if a person not wearing a mask has or hasn't been vaccinated.
Because the country is still riven by politics over the seriousness of the coronavirus and, for the same and other reasons, many people do not want to get the vaccination, there is a good chance that people who have not been vaccinated will be tossing their masks just like the vaccinated people are.
In that sense, we are all quite dependent on the kindness of strangers, so to speak.
Asked last week how we would know who is and isn't vaccinated, we would not know, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious-disease official and President Biden's chief medical adviser.
"You're going to be depending on people being honest enough to say whether they are vaccinated or not," he said on CNN.
That is troubling, if not scary, considering.
One mother worried that those who had not had the vaccine would take off their masks and possibly expose her daughter to covid before her daughter was able to get the vaccination.
There are other exceptions.
Workplaces and businesses may have their own guidelines and you should follow those. The CDC says if you travel, you should protect yourself and others, meaning you are required to wear a mask if you're traveling on planes, buses, trains and other forms of public transportation.
The bottom line is it's a safer world out there.
The vaccinations are doing such a good job that the vaccinated public can breathe easier and without a filter in most cases. But the risk is not zero and it may never be zero in the same way that we are at some risk of catching all kinds of ailments even if that risk is very low.
So, yes, the masks can come off for the vaccinated, but no one should get upset if they stay on a while longer.