It's too bad the mask thing got so politicised. There is rational discussion to be had on the subject in terms of the science and it's not clear cut as to whether they are terribly effective or not. The consensus in the limited literature on the topic is that they provide significant protection, but the confidence in this conclusion is not strong (don't get your knickers in a knot, this is how science and statistics work - the science basically says masks probably work but there's no guarantee). The evidence for physical distancing and hand hygiene is stronger, but even with these, there's no guarantee. Where I live (Vancouver Island) we've almost eradicated coronavirus and life is pretty normal. We did that with the initial shutdown of most businesses and having people self-isolate at home. The self-isolation was not an order from public health, but a guideline and pretty much everybody followed it. Now we've got it under control and even team sports are starting up and the only real restriction is no gatherings of more than 50 people. No stores here are requiring masks although probably 10-20% of the population chooses to wear one.
If the [bleep] hit the fan and the infection numbers here went very high, I suppose I'd wear a mask in places that distancing wasn't happening somewhat grudgingly. Of course, I've been wearing a mask off and on for the last few days doing insulation and drywall work and it hasn't killed me. Better than having that white drywall snot at least.
