also because their speech seems to be muffled by the mask. I'm in the same boat but I know that I have a hearing loss and have known since I was young. Their

also because their speech seems to be muffled by the mask. I'm in the same boat but I know that I have a hearing loss and have known since I was young. Their speech isn't really muffled. You were relying on reading their lips and didn't know it. I did some speech therapy when I was young to learn how to lip read and one of the things I was shown was how someone looking down, covering their face, or mumbling affected my ability to hear. I was taught to ask others to not mumble or cover their mouth. Not much of an option to ask people to not cover their mouth at the moment. Closed captions help for tv/movies. Hearings aides help if you can stand to wear them. Usually I talk louder myself to encourage people to speak up. When I can't hear someone I don't hesitate to tell them I can't hear them and that they need to speak louder and more clearly. I'm not terribly concerned about masks affecting my ability to hear others. I just ask them to speak up and politely point out that I am hearing impaired. It is more difficult to understand people but I find that it is mostly low talkers/mumblers who I would have struggled to hear mask or no mask.