Senate Bill S723

I am strongly opposed to any legislation that limits or stigmitises mask wearing in any way. Masks are a public health good and an accessability tool. They reduce the spread of diseases and their severity by reducing the ability of infectious agents to travel and the viral load.
Gatherings of all sorts where nose and mouth coverings are safer for public health and more accessible to immunosupressed individuals.

I am writing to urge all of you to oppose and reconsider such a bill or the idea any legislation of this kind to ban masks would be any kind of deterrent against crime. I ask you to consider how egregious and ineffective this bill is: Celebrities are still recognized while wearing masks by the paparazzi and the general public - so does this mean we should also ban sunglasses? Wigs? Hair coverings? There's no evidence that mask bans reduce crime, but history shows they've been used to target marginalized groups.

Many New Yorkers continue to mask or use a face covering for a number of reasons - whether it is for health protection/to protect others while sick, religious reasons, bad air quality that has plagued parts of New York state in recent years with active brush fires, or even just alleviating allergies and keeping their faces warm from the cold. Additionally - our communities continue to face overwhelmingly high rates of respiratory illness & rampant spread (not just Covid, but extremely high rates of Flu, RSV, and the recent return spread of Measles in the US and our region), and anyone should have the right to mask with zero harassment. There should be no reason to have a bill that invites additional potential attacks or stigma for this piece of personal protective equipment that many continue to use to stay safe.

As already eloquently stated from another New Yorker (Briana_Mackay) on another comment for the State Senate on a related bill:

"Mask bans will put many New Yorkers at increased risk, especially disabled and immunocompromised people that already greatly struggle in today's public health situation. No one should have the right to take away people's freedom to protect their health and the health of others.

People who wear masks to protect their health are already harassed, (including being coughed at, spit at, screamed at, followed, and more,) and harshly judged. This ban will embolden those who feel they have a right to attack and oppress people for simply trying to survive and avoid airborne viruses.

Anyone should be able to wear a mask if they choose, you shouldn't have to be disabled or in poor health, wearing a mask to protect your community is an extremely valid reason to wear one."

This bill would also increase the risk of discriminatory profiling even if carveouts were added; any kind of exception would rely on vague language, bias, and others' perceptions of threat, and is a slippery slope of towards a authoritarian/fascist "show me your papers" culture in order to prove medical necessity. In many cases, there is no official medical aspect involved; many of us are just simply wearing a mask to *protect* ourselves FROM needing medical care due to the risks posed by respiratory illness, and other airborne scenarios as I described earlier etc.

New York needs to protect the right to protest in a safe manner (as respiratory illness can still be spread outdoors as well), while we are in a crucial moment where we need to support the American right to dissent. We must be able to exercise our civil liberties without fear of retaliation or punishment. We cannot further stigmatize masks while COVID-19, measles, H5N1 bird flu, and other viruses remain threats to public health.

As a long-time resident of New York, I'm asking the State Senate to oppose this bill and Gov. Hochul's inclusion of any or all anti-mask measures in the budget.