I would have a hard time wearing a mask even if I wanted to.  I’m pretty significantly claustrophobic, almost exclusively due to being paranoid of suffocating.  I am a naturally shallow breather, and never breathe through my mouth without conscious effort, despite having difficulty taking deep enough breaths otherwise.  I can’t wear a scarf over my face in winter.  I can’t cover my head with a blanket.  I can’t even sleep with my face at all sunk into a pillow.  I had to don a mask for maybe two minutes at the dentist’s office today and I couldn’t have handled any longer.  But, I don’t have asthma, nor any other medical condition that I’m aware of that others would consider a “legitimate” reason for not wearing a mask.  As though wearing a mask is only unreasonable when a medical condition deems it so.

But, as I said, I wouldn’t be able to wear one even if I thought it was pointful.  I don’t.  I have read the details of several masking studies out there, and even when one ignores the many factors that are never taken into consideration (accumulation of virus on inside of mask, thus increasing viral load of the wearer; transfer from mask to hand to other objects to other people… a damp mask would be akin to licking your fIngers…;amount a person has to inhale of virus-infected droplets to become infected themselves…every study that addresses this concludes close proximity for a half hour or more is necessary…) the efficacy of masks In preventing viral spread is not shown to be anything  incredibly significant.  And then, even if it were, by and large, our bodies are made to be able to combat viruses.  In fact, one reason elderly people are having more difficulties with this is because they weren’t exposed to it when they were young when their bodies would have had a better chance of forming a defense (there is actually a specific biological function that this type of virus is combatted by, I just don’t recall the nitty gritty details)…so we are preventing the young and healthy from getting the virus when their (our?) bodies have a good fighting chance, in favor of resting all our eggs in the theoretical, some-day, untested vaccination possibility.

I get it, there are elderly and immunocompromised individuals we want to keep safe.  But the answer can not be to force an entire nation (world?) to “mask-up” every time they want to venture outside their home.  How about letting people choose for themselves?  A person who is concerned about getting sick can stay home and pretty easily mitigate what they come in contact with.  Even with a mask on, one can’t presume a risk-less experience when venturing into crowded spaces anyway, so why not let this thing run its course in less time (since almost no healthcare systems apart from NYC have been overrun at any point during this pandemic).
The “flatten the curve” mantra has been replaced by a notion of eradication.  It’s a dangerous notion, both in the costs it will incur now (which do include some severe health costs, too, by the way) and in what it means for our future when anything other than a virus-free existence warrants extreme prevention measures and justifies unchecked governmental dictates.
That is not a future I want.