Hey, get this: did you know people wore face masks before COVID? That's right! Little known fact.
In fact, many people in Asian countries used to be seen wearing masks in enclosed spaces like subways when they are sick, purely out of consideration for the health of others. Wow!
Some people have never stopped masking where I am. I've asked my partner to mask up when going any place indoors where sick people can't avoid (pharmacy, groceries, etc). We don't mask at a bar, but we do mask at a concert. The difference is that a concert happens once and tickets spoil. A bar is available every night, and sick people are more likely to stay home.
I can't believe people still act like putting a tiny piece of fabric on your face is even an inconvenience. So fucking dramatic "I can't imagine living like this" its like living a regular life except sometimes you go an public and you put a little piece of fabric on your face. It's similar in concept in some ways to how when you go in public you use pieces of fabric to cover your genitals, etc. oh man what a crazy fucking bizarro world can't even imagine if we had to put fabric on parts of us when interacting in public.
a lot of people have anxiety/panic disorders, and putting a mask on causes a feeling that they can't breathe even though it actually adds very little resistance if any. i'm one of those people, and i never got used to it after having to use them at work for a year. luckily i don't live in a densely populated area, so nobody wears them anymore and i don't have to either.
I don't think any of you online mask warriors are actually wearing them in public. I live in New York and no one is, so I assume that this is just another part of your generation's perpetually online fantasy existence.
I can't imagine that's at all true, it just probably doesn't register for you because it's not at all a big deal. I'm in Boston and I still see plenty of people regularly masking. A minority to be sure, but still substantial. And I even sometimes do myself if I feel a little sniffly, just to be safe. At the end of the day, it's shocking how many people are infantile little bitch babies about wearing a fucking mask.
It's mainly if you have contact with vulnerable people. COVID and flu both get upticks in the winter months, and hit the elderly and immunocompromised pretty hard.
I'm not militant about it but I keep 2 masks in my car and use em if I remember. I've only had covid mildly once and never have caught the flu in my life, but learning I could be an asymptotic carrier I decided no point in not wearing it when I remember.
I still use them if I am the one who is sick to prevent spreading, or if I'm going to be going on a trip soon to prevent me being sick and ruining the vacation, or if I'm around vulnerable people. The vacation one might sound silly, but I had a very close call this year where a family trip that couldn't be canceled and had to be planned a year in advance was almost ruined by everyone getting sick a few days before. We lucked out and it was very mild, but it could have been something nasty that made us cancel the trip. So now I wear a mask when going out in public a couple weeks before a trip.
I'm absolutely masking before any vacations. I'm going on a trip I've wanted to do for decades this fall, and no way am I risking missing it. The last "vacation" I was supposed to have (in 2019) got ruined by some asshole coughing up a lung on the plane and I spent a week in Aruba miserable in bed, which was a great use of my limited time off and money. Not doing that again if I can help it.
Yeah, it catches (lots of but not all) aerosolized saliva from the wearer's mouth, which means a carrier is putting less viruses into the air. It's far less effective the other way: stopping viruses in the air getting into your lungs, but it's slightly better than nothing.
So, if someone feels sick but cannot miss work, this allows them to lower the risk they pose to others near them.