Here’s to Bill Hader, the only celeb wearing a mask at the 2022 Emmys

Will masking in public discourse go on for the rest of our lives? It seems likely. When COVID hit, the subject was immediately politicized, but now that people are feeling marginally safer out in the world, it’s still a tricky topic. Wearing a mask is a common sense way not to get or spread any kind of airborne illness, but what should be a personal decision is still a matter of public debate.

Take Bill Hader, one of the only major celebs spotted in a mask at the 2022 Emmys. Granted, there were typical COVID protocols (testing and proof of vaccination) in place for presenters, nominees, and audience members, but there was just something striking about the image of Hader sitting amongst a sea of maskless faces, and people took note. Fans found the move relatable, respectable, even rebellious that the Barry creator stuck to his guns in a room of Hollywood power players. “We stan a safe king resisting peer pressure in the year 2022!” wrote one Twitter user.

As it turns out, Hader was not paranoid or virtue signaling by donning the mask. While he has admitted to having particularly bad COVID anxiety, it’s for good reason: he has an autoimmune condition and takes immune-suppressing medication, he revealed in a Hollywood Reporter profile earlier this year. Journalist Rebecca Keegan wrote that “Hader wears an N95 mask to work on the Sony lot, where masking is optional, and toggles between worrying about getting COVID-19 and worrying about whether the stress from worrying is triggering his autoimmune condition.”

Plus, he doesn’t want to risk shutting down production of his show, which hinges around him as a writer, director, and actor: “I thought, ‘If I get COVID, it’s going to cost a shit ton of money.’ And so I was very, very strict. I put myself under a lot of pressure. I just don’t like that that’s taking up space in my brain when I have all this other shit I’m trying to do,” he said.

These are eminently reasonable concerns, though certainly, one doesn’t need to be the immunocompromised head of a Hollywood production to continue wearing a mask. But if Hader’s lone mask was a beacon to the disabled community, all the better. As disability and dwarfism advocate Violet Elliot told BuzzFeed News, “Bill Hader wearing a mask is a glimmer of hope that we still have some support from someone influential, that it is socially acceptable to still wear masks in public … and that disabled and immunocompromised lives are valuable.”