When considering the value of wearing a mask I choose to believe that it is helpful in reducing my own risk, although less so now I am double-jabbed. The fact that a virus, being more than microscopically small, can get through a fabric mask as easily as I can walk through an 8' gateway doesn't mean a mask won't substantially reduce the amount of virus I am likely to pick up if I encounter an infective person.
By my thought process, the non-wearers are increasing their own risk as well as being selfish.
Unfortunately, the government almost certainly went out of its way to play down the effectiveness of mask-wearing early on in the pandemic, knowing that there was a desperate shortage of PPE for medical staff who were re-using disposable masks and wearing bin bags. The damage was done and can't be undone.
|