They have been shown to disrupt key aspects of human communication. Personally, I've had friends tell me how much they like that everyone is in masks because th

They have been shown to disrupt key aspects of human communication. Personally, I've had friends tell me how much they like that everyone is in masks because they no longer strike up conversations during random encounters, say in the grocery store. It contributes to a sense of permanent emergency which should be gone by now given that the vast majority of the at-risk population is vaccinated. At this point I don't see the purpose of attempting to stop or slow the spread of an endemic respiratory virus, that is just a fool's errand at this point. They also probably don't work, or at least not very well. People used to point to the Asian countries that hadn't had big outbreaks as evidence that population-wide mask compliance could work to prevent transmission, but that is no longer the case as they have all had big outbreaks. Even China had to halt traffic in and out of Wuhan recently.