Do You Want to Sit in the Vaccinated or Non-Vaccinated Section?

It wasn’t that long ago that I would be asked “Smoking or non-smoking” when I went to a restaurant. And I remember when airplanes attempted to separate smokers from non-smokers in their seating assignments. In fact, it wasn’t until 2000 that smoking was banned on airplanes. In 2002, Delaware was the first state to adopt a smoke-free law that made private workplaces, restaurants, and bars smoke-free. In Illinois, this happened in 2008, which is not really that long ago.

We knew smoking was a health hazard since 1964 when the Surgeon General concluded smoking caused lung cancer and bronchitis. Cigarette companies knew this as early as 20 years before that, but the industry continued to deny the science for all of those years. By 1986, the surgeon general warned that secondhand smoke was a major health risk to nonsmokers. Perhaps it took until the early 2000s for the science to sink in and for states to begin to adopt smoke-free laws.

We are at the stage with the COVID vaccines at which the honor system is not enough. I’m vaccinated but, despite the latest CDC advice, I still wear my mask in public places. I suspect that many of those who are vaccine hesitant are also anti-maskers. So, how do I interpret an unmasked person? Safe or not safe? While science tells me it is important to be vaccinated and for our…