I don't see it like that at all. I see it as having compassion towards others. Asian society has used masks in public long before covid, and it's because they have respect for other people. But not in this "me, my, I" American society. How dare we have a little empathy for another family?
Pre-2020 article on mask wearing in East Asia -
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/mask-appealNote there is an addictive component due to their perceived ability to hide against social interaction. They are not a purely pro-social behavior over there.
You also have to understand mask wearing in the context of Japanese culture, where even touching your nose when you're eating is seen as a major faux pas. I would theorize that it's less about a belief in the ability of a mask to contain air particles than it is about controlling sneezing or breathing with what are perceived over there as gross breath.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-9566.2012.01466.x - This article talks about it in more depth. Their masking only really got into gear during the 2004 Avian flu epidemic (can somewhat confirm this. I was young and it was long ago, but I don't recall seeing a single mask when I was over there).
Perhaps worst of all, people there were masking because they thought it should shield against radioactive isotopes! -
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2011-may-16-la-fg-japan-surgical-masks-20110515-story.htmlInasmuch as masking in Japan is related to any genuine sense of the collective good (and I'm not sure it is), it paints a dark portrait of a dark possible future in America.
I have a degree in community health and I've always viewed the pandemic from that area, as opposed to an individual view. I have no problem doing what is best for the common good instead of what is best for me. My daughter has flourished in school - having a mask on is annoying, but she understands the reasoning for it.
When I thought masks actually did anything I wore mine too. I prefer to be helpful. But most of the United States does not even require you to perform CPR when you see someone in front of you who is not breathing. We do not want to put people into situations where they can be blamed for their actions when they do not actively hurt anyone.
So let's say you walk into a gas station with ten people in it without a mask on. What % higher chance do those people have of dying of COVID if you wear a cloth mask or an N95? How do you measure that number? What number then is acceptable for telling people that their freedom gets taken away?
And, while I was checking the CPR thing, I found this recommendation from the Red Cross that masks be worn while giving CPR -
https://www.redcross.org/take-a-class/coronavirus-information/first-aid-cpr-aed-care-during-covid-19I don't know in what universe wearing a mask when giving CPR isn't just insanity. From what I understand CPR has a pretty low success rate to begin with and now we're reducing the airflow of the breaths by wearing a mask!?!?!? All to maybe sorta stop COVID?
I'd bet a few hundred dollars that more people have been killed by wearing masks during CPR than have been saved by all the past nearly two years of general mask wearing. But I concede there's no way really to measure it.