After years of fights over mask mandates, why do some states now want to ban face coverings?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Americans can’t seem to stop fighting about masks. After years of intense debate over mask mandates, the argument has now flipped entirely to become about whether certain face coverings should be banned.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said last week that she is considering banning face masks on New York City subways over concerns that the coverings obscure the identities of people committing antisemitic acts. New York City Mayor Eric Adams supports the idea, arguing that “cowards cover their faces.”

“We will not tolerate individuals using masks to evade responsibility for criminal or threatening behavior,” Hochul said. “On a subway, people should not be able to hide behind a mask to commit crimes.”

Hochul’s statement came a few days after a video spread online of a group of pro-Palestinian protesters, some of them masked, crowded into a subway car while one man instructed all Zionists — a term for people who support the existence of a Jewish state — to exit the train.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/after-years-of-fights-over-mask-mandates-why-do-some-states-now-want-to-ban-face-coverings-100032488.html

[hlthe2b]

1. Full face coverings, maybe, but surgical or N95 masks? So damned short-sided. Wait until the next Canadian wildfires

hit NYC. Or you get faced with the fact that NYC (and elsewhere) has one hell of a lot of immuno-compromised people living there. Should they be restricted to homes 24/7/365 for the rest of their lives? Not to mention that COVID-19 variants and other respiratory viruses continue to circulate. How dare a politician (even a DEM NY Governor) restrict their right to self-protection that harms no one else (unlike guns).

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

2. If you read further in the article about the ninth paragraph

Hochul has said that any future ban in New York would still allow people to mask for medical reasons and a similar exemption was added to North Carolina’s law before it passed.

[hlthe2b]

4. That is good.

albeit it does pretty much make it unenforceable.

[Skittles]

5. this is ridiculous

if people want to wear a mask they should be able to wear a mask - WTF

[appalachiablue]

6. Then Ban sunglasses, eyeglasses, hats, baggy coats & clothes,

wigs, beards and face makeup, all of which can obscure peoples' identities. Crazy.

[slightlv]

8. Our credit union does just that once you enter the lobby.

I can understand that, tho I recoiled from it at first. You do want to recognize the guy who's coming to rob you.

[Igel]

7. They'd do what they did when COVID hit.

Remove the ban.

There used to be pretty much exactly this ban in NYC until spring '20.