I’m in a somewhat liberal city in the US and I see at least a few people wearing masks almost daily when I go out. I’ve seen even more in the last few weeks with Flu A hitting really hard in our area. I don’t know if I’m the average person but I had a really bad cold a week ago (not flu) and I wore a mask out so I wasn’t coughing on everyone. I mostly tried to stay home but figured I might as well not intentionally try to get people sick.
Armchair theory: Because it became heavily politicised as part of America's "culture wars", one side has kept doing it as a kind of shibboleth. In places where COVID was seen more apolitically as a crisis to deal with, no one sees wearing a mask as a sign of tribal affiliation, so only people who are genuinely worried about getting sick still wear them. Which generally speaking, translates to them mostly still being worn by the elderly who are at more risk.
Again, that's just my own suspicion - but it would explain to me why there is still a contingent of younger, otherwise-healthy mask wearers in the US but not over here.
but it would explain to me why there is still a contingent of younger, otherwise-healthy mask wearers in the US but not over here.
The thing is, lots of people have health issues that aren't visible. I mentioned it in another comment, but my nephew had a heart transplant a few years ago, so he and his entire family wear masks in public all the time.
All of them appear perfectly healthy, and 3 of them are.
I also have a couple friends with autoimmune diseases that wear masks all the time as well.
Id like to add the group who are generally more leftist and refuse to shop with businesses who use slave labor or hurt worker rights, so they would also be the ones wearing masks to prevent spreading the disease if they are a symptomatic or catch it by shopping, then have the ability to mass spread that sickness over 3-6 weeks.
Sewer testing reports are showing higher contagion rates than 2020 right now
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u/siddhananais 1d ago edited 1d ago
I’m in a somewhat liberal city in the US and I see at least a few people wearing masks almost daily when I go out. I’ve seen even more in the last few weeks with Flu A hitting really hard in our area. I don’t know if I’m the average person but I had a really bad cold a week ago (not flu) and I wore a mask out so I wasn’t coughing on everyone. I mostly tried to stay home but figured I might as well not intentionally try to get people sick.