How To Address Maskless Mavericks When 'There's So Much Emotions Involved Right Now' With Delaware Valley In Green Phase
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- After much of the region turned green on Friday, you might still see people out and about not wearing face masks -- even after Philadelphia made masks mandatory. So, what do you do, do you confront them? An etiquette expert spoke with Eyewitness News to provide some answers.
Say you're walking by a restaurant and see plenty of people eating outside, but no mask insight. Or you're in a store, you're wearing a mask, but you notice someone is not, what do you do?
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"I wouldn't say it to the customer," one woman said.
"I would say something to the manager about it," another woman said.
"You don't want to be confrontational because there's so much emotions involved right now," Jacquelyn Youst, etiquette expert, said.
Youst, of the Pennsylvania Academy of Protocol, says to try to avoid those maskless mavericks.
"If you do want to say something to them, you might try diverting it to health officials, saying I think we're supposed to be wearing a mask right now," she said.
For workers who think an employer cannot require them to wear a mask, in most instances, businesses can, Center City-based attorney Lauren Wimmer says.
"The government has a legitimate interest in protecting the public for the coronavirus," she said.
For now, wearing a mask inside businesses remains mandatory for everyone in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.
In Philadelphia, masks are also required outdoors if people are less than six feet from those from other households.
Doctors say it's all for good reason.
"Certainly, the countries that have been implemented more wide-spread mask-wearing in public have seen a decreased rate of the spread of COVID-19 and also a lower rate of the number of deaths," Dr. Paul Johnson said.
