Document Type
Article
Recommended Citation
Spelman, Jonathan, “Mask-Less Shopping Is Like Drunk Driving,” Think: Philosophy for Everyone 21, no. 62 (2022): 117–32. doi:10.1017/S1477175622000069.
Abstract
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, many states in the U.S. issued stayat-home orders that prohibited people from leaving their homes except to access essential services. Upon reopening, a number of those states passed mask mandates requiring people to wear face coverings while in public, but as I write this, in October of 2020, there remain a substantial number of states that have not outlawed what I’ll call ‘maskless shopping’. This is a mistake. After describing the standard, public health argument for outlawing mask-less shopping and explaining why it fails, I give a better argument for outlawing mask-less shopping that depends on the claim that mask-less shopping is analogous to drunk driving. It follows that every state should outlaw it.
Publication Date
Fall 2022
DOI
10.1017/S1477175622000069