Originally Posted by
j44ke
Originally I wore a mask as protection for myself, panic and fear of the unknown. But as I did so, I realized that people expected me to be wearing a mask to protect them. That makes more sense to me, especially now that the percentages on infections among vaccinated people have been ticking upwards a bit. And because infected vaccinated people are not showing much of a reduction in their contagiousness to others, who may or may not be vaccinated. I am not a no-risk presence, even though I am vaccinated, so I wear a mask in the grocery, hardware store, etc. Closed spaces or whatever the magic phrase for that is now. As I understand it, the earliest stages of infection are when one is the most infectious, and I don't trust my ability to discern whether or not I might be ill in those early stages.
Not fear. Just shared responsibility. It seems like the quantification of actual risk is somehow separate from that, at least at the individual decision level. Public policy is really where those quantifications are more material, more important to get right and to do so with transparency and accuracy so efficacy of policy is not whittled away by loss of confidence in the community and the growth of a sense that public policy is based on government's desire for expediency more than presentation of usable fact.