Indoor Mask Mandates lifted in Nevada

This is big news, right? I think it’s fair to be hopeful, but we’re still seeing huge amounts of COVID 19 every day in Reno, and often in our tiniest patients. It’s still kind of scary out there.

We get it—2 years into this and we would all like to be done. I miss your faces, literally! I would someday like to clear out the …5, 6, 7, 8 masks that I have floating around my car for myself and my family. But let’s be clear about something: this change is not safe for all Nevadans.

Here are the people I still worry about: my nephew and nieces and hundreds of my patients who are not yet eligible for vaccines. My kids’ teachers and the staff at their school, where the vaccination rate for kids is less than 20%. My friends and family and patients’ families who, even if vaccinated, would be at high risk for serious illness with COVID. I will readily admit that the risk of serious illness for my patients is low, but it is not zero.

This is why I will be asking my kids to keep wearing their masks at school, even though they are vaccinated, and even if their classmates don’t. Because they don’t live in a bubble, and because COVID is unpredictable.

The majority of kids in Washoe County are not fully vaccinated, if they are vaccinated at all. So while case counts are lower, taking masks away in an indoor space increases their risk of illness. And while kids are generally doing well with COVID, a number of them are still becoming very ill, and even more of them are experiencing longterm symptoms that we still don’t have a great understanding of. Continuing to wear masks, on the other hand, is a simple and noninvasive thing we can all do to protect our community.

The best protection right now, of course, is the vaccine—we have them in our office and are happy to help vaccinate and protect your kids as soon as they’re eligible. Call us and we’ll hook you up!