Editorial: Gently, carefully moving toward openness

After 14 months of urging everyone to wear a mask, it suddenly feels a bit reckless to celebrate the sudden jolt into normality implicit in the CDC's latest guidelines. Can we really cue "Happy Days Are Here Again"? Maybe the more accurate title is "Happy Days Are At Last In Sight."

It is certainly exciting to contemplate the possibility that, with the CDC declaration that vaccinated people are safe in almost any setting, we're entering, possibly quickly, a new, declining phase of this crisis. But we also want to be sure it is the end phase, so it's important not to truly be reckless.

Especially since the CDC leaves so much to personal discretion. Previously, you could tell a lot about people and their concerns for their own health and that of the people around them by whether or how seriously they wore a mask. You could avoid them or at least give them a wide berth.

Now, it seems, public agencies, restaurants and entertainment venues are generally adopting trust as a strategy and counting on unvaccinated people to wear a mask and keep their distance from others. For vaccinated people, that approach seems fine from the CDC point of view. Most of us who have been vaccinated appear to be safe regardless of the circumstances in which we find ourselves, so even if people who formerly were steadfast in refusing to wear masks suddenly have no problem hiding their disdain and lie about being vaccinated, we're still protected. Those people aren't, of course, and their health is at the mercy of the other maskless potential liars in the room, as is that of even many vaccinated people with compromised immune systems.

Even before the CDC announcement last week, things were beginning to open up. Theaters began scheduling performances, Ravinia announced a lineup of 60 acts between July 1 and Sept. 26, Elk Grove Village announced plans for its summer activities. On Tuesday, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Lollapalooza will take place July 29 to Aug. 1 "at full capacity." All of this reopening can't help but stir lingering doubts from which there is no relief that is certain. Maybe the answer simply is recognizing that all change is hard, including this one, and this is a transition that we're all going to have to work through with patience, anxiety and a few antacids.

But we do remind deniers and the slow-to-act that masks always have been as much about keeping others safe as about protecting yourself. And much the same is true for the inoculated. Yes, you are unlikely to experience severe systems or die yourself, but you also are less likely to pass the disease on to another person, an open and dangerous possibility for people who are not vaccinated.

Even in the wake of last week's announcement, health officials still call for masks and distancing on airplanes, public transit and certain other close-quarters settings that may attract an unpredictable and varied collection of people. So keep in mind the distinction between happy days that are actually here and those we simply have cause to imagine.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker set the right tone Tuesday when he lifted many restrictions for people who have been vaccinated to bring the state in line with CDC guidance.

"I'm going to take it gently and carefully going forward," he said.

Gently and carefully.

And vaccinated.

That's the recipe for truly happy days.