If you look at the streets of Japan, at any given moment, you will see people wearing masks. It鈥檚 a normal part of life, some people just going about their day with a mask on. It鈥檚 usually people who feel they have some kind of illness, and in general people are fine with it. This is not a new thing, and it鈥檚 common and accepted.
This is a healthy approach, because it鈥檚 a way to at least mitigate disease transmission. Is it perfect? Of course not. But it鈥檚 still helpful, and more importantly, socially acceptable.
I bring this up because it鈥檚 an example of a country that has made the existence of masks normal. It鈥檚 useful, because it at least makes disease transmission a bit more difficult.
This isn鈥檛 normal in North America, which is probably why it has received so many outspoken, angry critics of the very existence of masks. They will go all out, from claiming dubious health problems to some sort of vast conspiracy theory when trying to justify not wearing masks for several minutes. Their reasoning seems to boil down do the fact that they don鈥檛 particularly want to wear a mask and are spending a great deal of time and effort trying to justify it.
Masks are annoying, of course, especially for someone who wears glasses, who will see steam fog up their vision pretty quickly if they have a lesser quality version. But, on the other hand, a few minutes of annoyance when you鈥檙e going to get some groceries isn鈥檛 a huge deal. Last time I had to wear one in a store I was much more annoyed by slow-moving lines than I was by the mask itself, it didn鈥檛 take long for it to just become a regular part of life. I don鈥檛 enjoy it, but it doesn鈥檛 ruin my day.
Frankly, if we鈥檝e had the luxury of going through our day without any mask use at all, we鈥檝e had it pretty good for a long time. Plenty of jobs require mask use, and I鈥檓 sure that surgeons, commercial painters, or even farmers cleaning grain bins are looking at these anti-mask people and shaking their heads. I still remember the time I thought I didn鈥檛 need a mask to clean a grain bin, and spent an evening blowing something extremely gross out of my nose.
As more stores make mask use mandatory, especially national chains, it鈥檚 clear that they鈥檙e just going to be part of life for a while. Potentially, they will be part of life permanently, as they are in other countries, where it just becomes normalized to wear a mask if you have disease symptoms. Maybe not mandatory for all people in all situations once the current crisis passes, but something that people just do sometimes, for the sake of others.
Honestly, the entire mask 鈥渄ebate,鈥� such as it is, reminds me of trying to convince a toddler to wear shoes. They don鈥檛 have a good reason not to wear shoes, and they鈥檙e not going to leave the house until they wear them, but they鈥檙e still going to fight tooth and nail to avoid doing it. And then, eventually, they grow up. They realize shoes protect their feet, they realize it鈥檚 normal to wear shoes. Then, eventually, they have toddlers of their own, who refuse to wear shoes, and they call their parents to complain, and those parents just laugh at them.
So, to the anti-mask brigade, all I have to say is follow the example of those former toddlers, and grow up.
听
