Reaction to Monday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle concerning federal mask mandates went about as expected.

From the start of the pandemic, mitigation efforts have been the barometer by which individual morality seems to have been measured. Masks and distancing mean consideration and concern. Abandoning either was seen as deadly indifference. Those conclusions may have been true for some time, but the widespread introduction of vaccines and boosters has changed everything.