I wish people gave a bit more shit about protecting themselves properly, I see too many half-assed mask wearing (with the nose out) around. Or people thinking being masked means they can just hover near others.
> I wish people gave a bit more shit about protecting themselves properly
I wish people gave a bit more shit about protecting others properly. The people who don't wear masks properly are the ones who think only about themselves ("this mask won't protect me anyway") and don't care about how masks help protect the people around them.
I'm vaccinated, why the hell should I wear a mask besides the fact that the government says so? The odds of me having any detectable viral load to transmit are extremely low. [1]
1. Signaling to intransigent anti-vax anti-maskers that wearing a mask is the right thing to do for the sake of others, because social messaging works.
2. Making it harder for intransigent anti-vax anti-maskers to blend in.
3. Informing others around you in a communicating society that you care about them, because nobody but you knows that you're vaccinated.
So it is really about signaling your affiliation at this point. At least you admit it. I wore a mask since last summer but the idea that I still need to wear it for no medical purpose, when over half of eligible Americans have received at least one shot and that number is rising every day, is just pure performative politics.
And the cost isn’t zero. It prevents others from seeing my face which is a critical component of social interaction. This was an acceptable cost last fall when cases were surging and we had no cure, but now it’s just ridiculous. I’ll get downvoted I’m sure, but if the mask mandates continue past May it’ll be a very strong sign that they were never primarily about following the science.
The first reason I gave was medical. Maybe you missed it? It's the one marked with a 0.
> It prevents others from seeing my face
I'm sure it's a very nice face. What if you carry a photo of it on a necklace? Best of both worlds.
> over half of eligible Americans have received
"Eligible" is a weasel word in this context because it artificially constrains the set of people that you're taking into account who can breed and transmit mutated strains. Fewer than half of all Americans have received at least one shot so far. That is improving rapidly, of course, but there are also a number of mutated variants currently in the wild with more to come, and we should all want to stop them from gaining traction because we all want to live our lives.
When we get to a point soon where the only people without immunity are either intransigent anti-vaxxers (for whom its their own fault if they get sick) or small children (who only get sick very rarely from covid, much more rarely than even young adults) then we can just ignore the disease as a society. Yes, over time variants will evolve and cause cold like symptoms in vaccinated people, but that's how every single common cold came about originally! Doctors have been saying since last year that this would happen with covid too.
The idea being thrown around that people should continue to wear masks for the rest of their lives is just not justifiable.
You appear to be focusing exclusively on individuals instead of on the fact that spreading to to those individuals also rolls the dice on new mutated strains that could kill another half million Americans and cause major vascular and neurologic harm in millions more, including those who are already vaccinated. Protecting the intransigent from themselves also protects everyone else.
> for the rest of their lives
This is a straw man. Everyone advocating for mask use has the goal of stamping out the disease so that wearing masks stops being clearly beneficial.
> The idea being thrown around that people should continue to wear masks ... is just not justifiable.
From a public health perspective it would be. On one side we have the potential for significantly reduced viral transmission (all oronasal-route viruses, not just COVID19) across populations and fewer people getting sick and dying every year, and on the other side we have your pretty smile. Everyone who decides that they can still interact socially without spitting on each other has actually a perfect justification for wanting everyone to continue using masks.
You appear to be communicating in very immediate self-oriented terms ("_I'm_ vaccinated", "odds of _me_ having", "_my_ face") while the people you're arguing against are focusing on a bigger scale of effect that accounts for what happens when the virus that killed more than half a million people in a year in the US alone and which appears to cause serious long-term harm in survivors is allowed to mutate in unvaccinated people.
If you've reached your 95% resistance level from the vaccine, then I don't think it's particularly egregious to not wear a mask.
I'm sorry my two sentences didn't cover every single nuance of the complicated topic!
I will say, I think there is value to wearing a mask even after being vaccinated, as a symbol of social cohesion, but I totally accept someone deciding that isn't a good enough reason to wear a mask. But, if you don't wear a mask because you've hit your vaccine resitence level, I don't think you're being selfish.
That said, I still support a business or individual's right to require all people to wear a mask on their premises. After all, it might be impractical for them to properly screen who has and hasn't worn a mask.
I also wish that governments try to inform more, I don't really see anyone saying "Ventilate more!" like this research results suggest they should: https://english.elpais.com/society/2020-10-28/a-room-a-bar-a... .