More people are shedding their masks these days, and it’s obvious they’re happy about it. You can see it in the smiles that have been hidden for so long.

With the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recent announcement that fully vaccinated people no longer must wear masks to protect from COVID-19, many businesses have followed suit. Supermarkets and convenience stores in the Tri-Lakes area usually require their staff to wear masks but no longer require fully vaccinated customers to wear them. They don’t ask customers to prove they are vaccinated in order to go maskless. It’s the honor system, which works insofar as people are honorable.

So be honorable. If you are not fully vaccinated, please wear a mask. You may be able to get away with not doing so, but that can endanger everyone.

Many other businesses have decided to keep mask mandates in place for now. That’s their right as private entities. Post offices require masks as well. Please respect that. It’s not for some political statement. It’s to keep their staff members and customers as protected from the virus as they feel necessary.

If a mask is required in a place you are entering, wear one — and wear it properly, not below your nose or around your chin. It’s not hard.

There may be fully vaccinated staff and customers in businesses where mask mandates are gone who still feel more comfortable wearing them. That’s fine, too. They may not be as at ease going unprotected. They probably have good reasons for that — maybe they work in health care or have a vulnerable family member at home — but their reasons are none of our business. Being overly careful hurts no one.

So be mindful as you go about your daily lives that some businesses and customers have a different view of wearing masks than others. Wearing them, even when the mandates are gone for good, is no problem. Those folks are doing what they feel necessary to protect themselves and others.