Whereas if you don't wear one, someone else's glasses may get steamed up.

Masks seem to = its okay to be closer to people you don't know, at least what I am seeing around Vancouver anyhow.

I do think masks give people this false sense of security at times, and then of course the ones who cover only their mouth leaving those nose out which at that point may as not even wear a mask.

this is my feeling as well. I think a lot of people view mask wearing as a short cut to returning to normal and are therefore putting social pressure on others to wear them.

As I believe many of our chief public health officials have said, wearing a mask is not a substitute to social distancing, I suspect this is why they have not become mandatory.

Also some people cannot wear them for medical reasons.

If the science is proving that masks help stop the spread of this virus then why aren't Politicians pressuring their respective Governments to make the wearing of them outside MANDATORY?

How can people get upset about others not wearing them if there is no mandatory requirement? Granted even if made mandatory there would be a small % who still wouldn't wear one but like everything else in life the vast majority would comply.
Yes social distancing is also helping out a great deal but with lockdown's being gradually lifted have you seen the pictures of public transit in many countries lately with or without masks. Impossible to police on certain modes ie the Tube, Metro but doable on others as they can limit the numbers getting on a plane or a bus in most cases.

Wearing, or not wearing, a mask is a political act, part of Trump's "culture wars" and so best not discussed here.

BC Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry won't be requiring people to wear masks, and several companies while asking customers to wear them wont deny service if people choose not to.

"I really don't believe we should be requiring it," said Henry during her daily briefing on Tuesday afternoon.

"There are many reasons why some people cannot wear a mask, a face covering — people who have certain respiratory illnesses, it can be very challenging and can cause breathing problems," she said. "

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...asks-1.5567026

This sock mask turned out well.

That's hilarious ​​​​� ��​

That's cracked me up.

"Since the world's first epidemic, we’ve built treatments for various infectious diseases. Yet, our understanding of disease transmission, and the mechanisms behind it, have not advanced much from the 19th century days of Louis Pasteur. Lydia Bourouiba, Disease Transmission Scientist, explains that, to uncover remaining secrets behind disease transmission, we must leverage advances in fluid dynamics and biophysics. Lydia and her team are unveiling the mechanics behind airborne disease transmission, revealing how pathogens travel from a point source (the mouth), into the air, and eventually through ventilation systems, hospitals, airplanes, and more. Through advanced mechanistic modeling, Lydia can tell us how to prevent disease outbreaks before they occur. Watch her TEDMED 2018 Talk to discover how we can make better life or death decisions to reduce the spread of infectious disease."


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...wBIrMXLJkAAmzo

FINDINGS: Live influenza virus was measurable from the air behind all surgical masks tested. The data indicate that a surgical mask will reduce exposure to aerosolised infectious influenza virus; reductions ranged from 1.1- to 55-fold (average 6-fold), depending on the design of the mask.

CONCLUSION: We describe a workable method to evaluate the protective efficacy of surgical masks and RPDs against a relevant aerosolised biological challenge. The results demonstrated limitations of surgical masks in this context, although they are to some extent protective.


"To mask or not to mask"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycf6bAMKgjg&fbclid=

I live in Austria. We are required to wear masks in shops, public transport, in any public area indoors. I have no problem wearing one. It protects others from my droplets and I'm protected from others droplets. Every bit helps even if the mask is not ffp2 standard. We mainly wear hot washable, reusable masks, disposable masks and some wear ffp2 masks. Have you tried to blow out a candle when wearing a mask? Try. Even a homemade double layer cotton mask is not useless. Of course you keep a safe distance too.

As I read from somewhere “I wear my mask to protect you. You wear your mask to protect me.”

I wear a homemade mask in the grocery store and Costco. Here at least I’d say 50% of shoppers do the same. All the Costco staff were masked up.

Here it's all over. I went to Loblaws and the liquor store. No sign of social distancing nor masks at either. The LCBO staff wear welder's face shields but no one else was wearing PPE. Lots of people were out and about mingling. It's quite frightening and will, I assume, soon be followed by a call back to work. I think I'm in a strong enough position to say "no" and carry on as now and, anyway, I can live if they dump me, but most people are not.

Why is Canada being so lax about preventive exposure, i.e. mandatory masks? Here in Mississippi, US, no mask, no entry.