On March 12, our state and county’s mask mandate will lift.

While we joyously welcome lower case counts in our community and county — and feel the relief of quite literally breathing a little easier now — we’d still all do well to prepare for changes the rollback of the mandate will bring, and temper our exuberance with caution.

We all remember the thrill of the last mask-lifting moment last summer, followed by the disappointment that followed only a few weeks later, as Delta cases began to surge and strike even the vaccinated among us.

Then, at the peak of Vashon’s Omicron spike in January, approximately 40% of the island’s infections were in school-aged kids — a demographic of slightly more than 10% of the island’s population — according to VashonBePrepared. But at that time, our school district messaged, as it has throughout the pandemic, that its strict mask policy had been effective in stopping the spread of COVID in classrooms.

Now, that school district policy is set to change, and with it, the messaging has changed as well.

In an email sent to the community last week, Superintendent Slade McSheehy made it clear that mask-wearing, or not, would not be a subject for discussion in school after March 11. “Students will have the choice to wear a mask at school, with the expectation that others’ choices will be respected,” he wrote. “One should not make assumptions regarding someone’s beliefs or health status, nor should they comment on them.”

McSheehy’s sudden framing of mask-wearing as a wholly personal choice, made on the basis of “beliefs” that are off-topic for being commented upon, is a little unsettling to us, as we suspect it will be to some students and community members as well — especially those who live with elderly or immunocompromised family members.

We all need to talk about masks.

Mask-wearing has never really been about personal choice — we’d all prefer not to, of course. Rather, mask-wearing has been a matter of policy in public places, which we have been asked to follow for the good of all, and that continues to be the case.

Businesses and other organizations, even after March 11, can still choose to require or at the least, strongly encourage masks. Our schools could also encourage mask-wearing as a way to protect the entire community. District staff could model that behavior in crowded settings. We hope they will.

Last week, Granny’s Attic sent an email to its customers, letting them know the thrift shop — Vashon’s de facto department store and also one of the island’s most important philanthropic enterprises — will be keeping its mask mandate in place, at least for now. Framing the decision as one to “proceed slowly and carefully, and see how the new relaxation of standards affects cases locally and regionally,” Granny’s said that its mask policies would have “at the very least a few weeks of lag time behind government mandate reductions.”

Likewise, Vashon Center for the Arts will follow the example of almost all professional performing arts venues in Seattle and nationwide, keeping masking requirements in place for audience members at least throughout their spring seasons.

Vashon Theatre staff will still be masked, and ask patrons to wear masks as they enter the movie theater.

Dr. Jim Bristow, of Vashon Medical Reserve Corps, has also said he will continue to wear a mask in indoor public places, for now.

We support and respect these decisions.

The email from Granny’s said it best: “Properly worn, quality masks have a significant effect on limiting transmission, and people who don’t contract the disease have an absolute 0% rate of serious illness and death from it,” it said.

After everything we’ve been through in the past two years, that’s the best argument we can think of for proceeding with caution in the coming days and weeks.