The reason why WHO says for healthy people to not use masks, the reason why the CDC originally said it, is because wearing a mask slightly increases your risk of catching whatever infectious virus comes your way, including COVID-19. You unconsciously touch your face more. You don't take it off right. The shape funnels the viruses to gaps, including the eyes.
So basically if you wear a mask you are protecting others at the expense of yourself. You are protecting others at the expense of the loved ones who live with you and would catch it from you. You are showing more care for the health of strangers than you are for your spouse, your children, your parents.
Ouch. Yeah, it burns to think that you are heightening their risk, but that's reality and if you're going to defend masks then you damned well better defend all aspects, including saying "fuck you" to your immediate family.
Who are you protecting? Can anyone truly say that the number of workers and number of "get only what is needed and get out" people outweigh the "I'm bored, let's go shopping" people. I don't have to venture out of my four walls to know that answer. There's plenty of reputable sources that do have to venture out from their four walls that are quite informative. The "I'm bored" people are the huge, huge majority.
And frankly the "I'm bored" people have zero of my sympathy. Insert natural disaster here. My natural disaster was Hurricane Isabel. Three-ish days after it came through one grocery store was open, the manager had plugged a generator in for emergency lighting and a couple of registers. Dry goods only. Apparently their meat was left in place rather than removed pre-hurricane and though the coolers gleamed from recent cleaning a third of the store was downright sickening from the smell of rotten meat. I couldn't stay more than 30 seconds before the nausea hit, it reeked so bad. 7-8 days in I knew we would be getting our power back soon since we were near a hospital. Yeah, 7-8 days in some hospitals didn't have their power back. At least we had clean water the whole time, some parts of town had to boil for a couple of days after the hurricane. Some parts of town people couldn't use their gas appliances for a few days since there were serious questions about the main gas lines. Neighborhoods had grilling parties the first couple of days since it was either cook what's in the freezer and share with neighbors or watch it go bad because no electricity. Just imagine over a week of nothing to do except whatever is on physical paper, going to bed with dusk because you've stopped seeing anything due to darkness, eating what you can make with dry goods and limited or no heat source, and a choice of ice cold showers or sponge baths. It wasn't fun. And Isabel wasn't all that compared to some others like Katrina and Andrew. I lived through a giggler. Giggler in more ways that one, the wildfires of the west, tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, those 10 foot snowstorms a few years back...betcha that people who went through those would kill for uninterrupted electricity, internet, hot showers, cold refrigerators and roast for dinner. Now I want roast. Oh wow, grocery stores are open with fresh meat, not empty coolers and the stench of rotting meat, I can go buy one. And I have electricity, I can cook one and save the leftovers.
I hate masks for many reasons, but one of them is I'm ticked off that I have to protect others at the expense of my daughter's health. Actually more the opposite, she works at a grocery store 6 days a week, and I buy cat food at PetSmart once in a while. But the point still stands, one of us is putting the other at risk in order to protect Karens. If people were staying home instead of "I'm bored" I'd be tons more sympathetic to the concept of group good.
