Professor Katherine Macfarlane, director of the Disability Law and Policy Program, discussed the growing trend of states and cities enacting mask bans with NBC News.
In the article “Mask bans are growing in popularity. Critics call the trend a ‘dog whistle’ to quell protest”,
Macfarlane, who has a disability and considers herself high risk, questions how a mask ban takes into account the safety of people like her with health vulnerabilities. She also doubts that increasing “high-stress” interactions with the police will yield positive results and feels it’s unfair to put the burden on immunocompromised people to share health concerns that are not visible to the naked eye.
“That doesn’t lend itself well to a safe interaction,” she said. “It makes me really nervous about the right to protest, the right to attend a political rally.”