3 ms·
>And why are people so resistant to wearing masks? How do I know for sure that people around me are not contagious? Judging from my own personal feelings I thi
by ginko 7y ago
>And why are people so resistant to wearing masks? How do I know for sure that people around me are not contagious?
Judging from my own personal feelings I think you're kinda answering your first question with your second one. Being one of the few people wearing a mask in public signals that you think everyone around you might be contagious. People worry that they might be seen as rude.
I'm not saying this is a logical behavior, and things might be different in the current situation if masks were in wide supply.
- l_davis 7y agoI got carryout at a Chinese restaurant today. The staff (Thai) said her friends are afraid to wear masks because of fear of assault. So that would most certainly be a factor outside of Asia for Asians. Personally I'm not wearing a mask yet as I am strict about only going outside for exercise and essential shopping, I am staying very mindful about keeping distance (which I think many people are being lax about), and I don't own reusable masks yet. I have ordered cotton reusable masks though and plan to buy additional ones (from a friend who is starting the process of sewing them - taking nothing from medical personnel) so I can change to keep them effective as needed. And then when (probably not if, I speculate) I need to go out more before this pandemic is over, I plan to wear them in public. Both to avoid spreading to others if I am an asymptomatic carrier and to do my very tiny part in normalizing mask wearing in this case. My thinking has gone from buying into to the current conventional wisdom in the west not to wear them to believing that they are a relatively low cost way to slow both this and possible future epidemics.