I am writing to show my opinion that the state employee mask mandate should be ended immediately.

Perhaps the mask mandate made sense at the beginning of the pandemic, but now with vaccines available for all that want them, and improved understanding of the disease and its treatments, we don't need a mandate to stay safe.

I personally find wearing masks annoying and uncomfortable. I do not wear a mask anywhere in life but in meetings with other state employees at my job at VDOE. We are all vaccinated. We also know that the Omicron variant seems to infect people regardless of masks and vaccination. 

Now is the point to accept that COVID will be with us forever, but it is manageable. It's not an emergency. People should be free to wear masks if they want to wear one, but I shouldn't be forced to continue to wear one.