Is that masks are shown by empirical data to dramatically reduce spread. Suggestions are that 95% mask compliance combined with a certain degree of social distancing would effectively eliminate spread. The reason you wearing a mask protects me is that you breathe out the bug, if you have it. The aerosol effect can fill entire spaces, much as a cig smoker will foul the air in even large spaces. So even if I’m masked, that can get into me via eyes or ears, mainly. And the downside of wearing masks has only been shown to be that it triggers certain people.

Certainly no downside that offsets the potential of saving even just a few lives. Evidence suggests it saves many, and maybe most if the mask whining portion of the population would suck it up and stop whining. I don’t find masks to be comfortable, and I consider wearing them to be sucking it up a bit. But just a bit.

You may consider yourself to be the arbiter of the exact specific questions that need answering before wearing a mask in public spaces become worth the lives it saves. But the essence of a democracy is that elected leaders make those calls, and in the next election, they are rehired or fired for the calls they make. It is not an imposition on your freedom, any more than speed limits or the requirement that you not walk around with your junk taking in the sunshine.

[Post edited by hoolstoptheheels at 04/18/2021 5:36PM]