Cato: No Joe, Governors Shouldn’t Require Everyone to Wear a Mask When Outside

 Last week, presumed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden called on state governors to order residents to wear masks in order to reduce transmission of the SARS‐​CoV‐​2 virus.

According to UPI:

"“Every single American should be wearing a mask when they’re outside for the next three months at a minimum,” Biden said. “Every governor should mandate mandatory mask wearing.”"

It’s unclear what significance his statement has beyond virtue signaling. Still, the idea has popular support; a recent Fox News poll (see question 40) finds that 74% of respondents support such a requirement.

Mask‐​wearing, of course, is important in this pandemic. As I note in a forthcoming paper on limited government and COVID-19, there is scientific consensus that infected people (who often are unaware they’re infected) who wear masks greatly reduce the odds of their infecting others. There also is growing evidence that uninfected people who wear masks reduce their risk of becoming infected, though not as much as when the infected wear masks. And when both the infected and uninfected wear masks, risk of transmission appears to be extremely low, especially if they also practice social distancing.

In policy terms, SARS‐​CoV‐​2 is a negative externality: a cost involuntarily foisted on others. Limited government can (and in many cases should) address negative externalities, subject to such restrictions as that the resulting policies do not infringe on protected rights and do provide net benefits to society. Requiring the wearing of masks appears to be such a policy; it certainly seems at least as legitimate as largely uncontroversial public decency laws requiring the wearing of some clothing when in public.

Read more at https://www.cato.org/blog/no-joe-governors-shouldnt-require-everyone-wear-mask-when-outside