I'm visiting a small town, a generally red area, but with some very blue parts due to a local university.
I went into a gaming store today for some Christmas shopping. The door said "Masks Required" but I assumed it had just been left up. I enter and the proprietor says, "Masks are in the box." I say, "Oh, masks are still required?" Answer, yes.
I turn to my kid and say, "Ok, we'll go back out."
As I turn to leave, the owner immediately gets upset and yells "Well EXCUSE ME for not wanting to die. I'm immunocompromised, I want to stay healthy, THANKS FOR CARING."
It's worth noting that the owner appeared to be some non-binary blobfish of a human. Honestly no idea if he or she. If s/he REALLY wanted to be healthy, xer would lose about 75 lbs.
That's pretty much the craziest covid interaction I've ever had.
I mean if you're sick and coughing, wearing a mask isn't a bad idea if you want to reduce exposure to others.
Exactly. If people masked up whenever they felt under the weather, that would actually be caring for the people around you. Not the sanctimonious horseshit like the owner in OP's story.
I don't have the source at hand, but at some point a hospital stopped using surgical masks and the number of infections did not change. Even in the context of their intended usage surgical masks are likely just a security blanket.
I honestly don't see a use to surgical masks beyond preventing arterial spray from entering your nose and mouth, same reason for wearing eye protection. Masks don't work for airborne particles that are smaller than water vapor (literally all viruses).