John & Shari: As state ends COVID mandates, some people can’t let go

King County’s vaccination verification policy has now ended, and the state and countywide mask mandates are coming to an end soon, leaving the choice up to individual businesses and each customer.

John & Shari: Customers ‘being used for marketing’ at loud restaurant

The vaccination verification policy officially ended March 1 in King County, but some places have announced that they will be sticking with it for a while longer, often citing the extension as being a way to ensure continued employee and customer safety.

“I’m all for this,” KIRO Newsradio host John Curley said. “If you want to, go ahead. And if you don’t want to, don’t.”

“So you’re standing on the sidewalk and there’s two teriyaki places right next to each other, … one of them has a sign that says ‘we check vaccination cards,’ the other one doesn’t,” he offered as a scenario. “You make the choice as to which one you want. I said this from the very beginning: Allow the people to make the decision, what risks, what benefits they want to have. Don’t come in there with the edict.”

John also cited a poll from mid-February that showed most Americans who live in a community where masks are required say they will still wear a mask even if the mandates end.

“That doesn’t surprise me at all,” host Shari Elliker replied.

Shari said she went to breakfast with a friend and they both went into the restaurant without masks but were the only ones to do so, even though there are no current mask mandates where she lives.

“It’s like a seatbelt,” she said. “I think people feel secure with them now where they feel like they’re doing something, that it has to help a little bit, and they’re used to it.”

John, however, thinks masks ruin one’s “ability to communicate with another human being effectively.”

“One of the really important parts of communication — not just your eyes, and not just the words whether they’re muffled or not — but your face, your smile, your mouth,” he said, “it’s one of the primary indicators of how you are.”

Listen to John Curley and Shari Elliker weekday afternoons from 3 – 7 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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