I think we all understand that. The question posed was 'why are people vehemently opposed' and the context is 'a pandemic'. It would be 'vehemently ridiculous

I think we all understand that. The question posed was 'why are people vehemently opposed' and the context is 'a pandemic'. It would be 'vehemently ridiculous' for people to arbitrarily wear masks, but missing your swimming instructors smile is a relatively small price to pay for controlling a pandemic which is still unfortunately ongoing, and which has major consequences. If wearing masks for 6 more months can materially push COVID out of business, then the trade off is a 'no brainer'. The arguments made here seem to really lack context, it doesn't give confidence. We already know wearing masks sucks, that's not the point. The point is wearing them in the context of a deflating but nevertheless persisting public health crisis.