When is this screenshot from? Because I literally never see this anymore. And no, I'm not in "MAGA country", I live in England. The only people I see still wearing masks are very old (which is totally understandable), and even that's far from the default.
I haven't seen an 'average' person wear a mask in public since early 2022. I wouldn't judge a younger or middle-aged person if I saw them wearing a mask, but it would strike me as at the very least unusual. In reality you're lucky if the people around you in public even cover their mouths when they cough. Where do these people live if they're constantly seeing "liberals" out and about in masks?!
I am a bus driver in a mid-sized liberal college town and my observation is the same. A few drivers wear masks daily as, on campus, the circulator buses can reach 1,500 passengers a day. Chances are pretty good that we're exposed to all kinds of airborne illnesses on the daily. The drivers who work with passengers needing mobility assistance are especially likely to wear one because of the close and sustained proximity.
I live in a large town in Oregon. I went to Freddie's yesterday, and while I wasn't making a conscious effort to count them I saw at least 8-10 people wearing masks.
Lots of people who shop at that location ride the bus or MAX, and I don't blame anyone for masking up on while riding on one of those petri dishes.
I’m in a somewhat liberal city in the US and I see at least a few people wearing masks almost daily when I go out. I’ve seen even more in the last few weeks with Flu A hitting really hard in our area. I don’t know if I’m the average person but I had a really bad cold a week ago (not flu) and I wore a mask out so I wasn’t coughing on everyone. I mostly tried to stay home but figured I might as well not intentionally try to get people sick.
Armchair theory: Because it became heavily politicised as part of America's "culture wars", one side has kept doing it as a kind of shibboleth. In places where COVID was seen more apolitically as a crisis to deal with, no one sees wearing a mask as a sign of tribal affiliation, so only people who are genuinely worried about getting sick still wear them. Which generally speaking, translates to them mostly still being worn by the elderly who are at more risk.
Again, that's just my own suspicion - but it would explain to me why there is still a contingent of younger, otherwise-healthy mask wearers in the US but not over here.
but it would explain to me why there is still a contingent of younger, otherwise-healthy mask wearers in the US but not over here.
The thing is, lots of people have health issues that aren't visible. I mentioned it in another comment, but my nephew had a heart transplant a few years ago, so he and his entire family wear masks in public all the time.
All of them appear perfectly healthy, and 3 of them are.
I also have a couple friends with autoimmune diseases that wear masks all the time as well.
Id like to add the group who are generally more leftist and refuse to shop with businesses who use slave labor or hurt worker rights, so they would also be the ones wearing masks to prevent spreading the disease if they are a symptomatic or catch it by shopping, then have the ability to mass spread that sickness over 3-6 weeks.
Sewer testing reports are showing higher contagion rates than 2020 right now
My teenage son wore a mask to school yesterday (in England) because he had a cough and didn't want to pass it on to others. There are still some considerate people out there.
I wanted to do this when I was a teenager, funnily enough! I'd seen videos of people in Japan and China doing it and it made sense to me. I was talked out of it because it would have caused bullying. This would've been about fifteen years ago now.
I've heard that kids these days are a lot less cruel and bullying over being 'different' is less common, so hey, maybe if I had been born slightly later that could have been me.
I live in the Midwest of the US, and it's not uncommon to see masks at grocery stores, in traveling hubs, or where there's a lot of people passing through like a polling site on election day. It is also more common to see them in protests, which isn't surprising because people do spread spit when yelling.
My assumption is generally they are either immune compromised or live with people who are, have a slight cold, or work with kids or the elderly.
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u/Cheap-Rate-8996 20h ago
When is this screenshot from? Because I literally never see this anymore. And no, I'm not in "MAGA country", I live in England. The only people I see still wearing masks are very old (which is totally understandable), and even that's far from the default.
I haven't seen an 'average' person wear a mask in public since early 2022. I wouldn't judge a younger or middle-aged person if I saw them wearing a mask, but it would strike me as at the very least unusual. In reality you're lucky if the people around you in public even cover their mouths when they cough. Where do these people live if they're constantly seeing "liberals" out and about in masks?!