MTA should designate mask-only cars to help riders still at risk from COVID-19
Commuters board a Long Island Rail Road train at the Hicksville LIRR station in May. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost
You do you.
That was the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's message to riders this fall as the agency lifted all masking requirements and suggested that commuters could and should make their own decisions as to whether to wear a mask.
But "you do you" doesn't work for those who are immunocompromised, who need others to wear a mask to help keep them safe. "You do you" doesn't work for those of us who still consider COVID-19 a significant risk, one that could become more severe in the coming months. "You do you" doesn't work when new variants threaten to spread quickly, when a significant winter surge is likely, when any data on positive test rates is virtually useless because most people only test from home.
And "you do you" doesn't work for people like T.D. Mitchell, a Brooklyn resident suffering from long COVID after an initial bout in the early days of the pandemic, who takes the subway to medical appointments and fears getting COVID-19 again.
"I'm forced to risk my life to take the MTA transit just to try to save my life with medical care," Mitchell told the MTA board last month.
Masking on the Long Island Rail Road and New York City's subways and buses has waned considerably in recent months. Often, it's rare to see anyone wearing a mask during their LIRR commute. And masks are sporadic at best on the subways and buses.
Those who see the pandemic as a nuisance in their rear view mirrors might find it easy to think masking no longer matters. It may be even easier for them to dismiss the concerns and worries of others as being unnecessary or overwrought.
But that would be a mistake. COVID-19 and its newest variants pose a legitimate and worrisome threat to the region. Residents across Long Island and beyond, especially those who are immunocompromised, have every reason to fear the pandemic, to wonder whether they're in danger as they look at the unmasked person sitting across from them.
But MTA officials are choosing to pass the buck on this issue.
"The MTA is not a public health expert and we're going to defer to the folks who have that responsibility for establishing standards in all the public health spaces," MTA chief executive Janno Lieber said last month.
Lieber emphasized that he's "really respectful" of concerned riders, but he seems to have no appetite to revisit the policy.
But this isn't all or nothing. The answer doesn't have to lie in the return of a systemwide mask mandate. There's another way. All authority officials need to do is listen to riders like Sally Wolf, a Manhattan resident with metastatic breast cancer who spoke at the same MTA board meeting.
"It is so anxiety-provoking to choose a seat, settle in, only to have to scan a car every time the door opens, worried that someone who may not actually be thoughtless in a mean-spirited way but is simply thoughtless in not thinking about the fact that their sitting next to me hurts me," Wolf said. "Help us."
Wolf's thoughtful, appropriate suggestion was echoed by others: Establish mask-only train cars, or mask-only sections of train cars on the subway and commuter rail, similar to the LIRR's quiet car program. Such an idea doesn't need a public health official's blessing. Some signage, a public service campaign, and a gentle reminder should do the trick.
That way, Wolf said, "we can each do us."
Columnist Randi F. Marshall's opinions are her own.
Randi Marshall is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
