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Comment by jonas21 | Hacker News Reader

Have you considered that people are looking at you not because they want to shame you, but because they're trying to determine if you're sick and they should be extra careful around you, e.g. don't touch anything you've touched, etc?

If the guidance so far has been to only wear a mask if you're sick, it seems reasonable to assume that someone wearing a mask is more likely to be sick than average.

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Most of these people are passersby on the street who would have no opportunity to touch something I've touched.

I heard from someone who wore a mask recently who was flat-out told, "You're overreacting." It's not just caution, there is some kind of social insistence that the masks are not necessary and even to be discouraged, which I even sense in myself when I'm out and about without a mask and see others wearing them. It's natural for whatever reason, but we should be cognizant that it's just better than if people don't have protection enough to fight that tendency.

I think it has to do with their (incorrect) assessment of the situation. Rather than reevaluate their assessment (as that would increase their anxiety), they rationalize your assessment as overreaction.

Yet another example of the bullying culture of the US.

It is not an airborne infection.

Only in the sense that "airborne" is a scientific medical term meaning larger than 0.5 µm. When most people hear "airborne" they think it means "in the air", which the virus certainly is. The use of this terminology in the strict scientific sense when speaking to general audiences is borderline irresponsible.

People have implicit or explicit reactions to things. Not trying to down play your experience here (your experience is still valid), but they probably are not intentionally thinking or making a face. It's probably because this is new to them and not something they usually experience, so they do a double take and end up with a stare. I've done this will people wearing gloves recently, even though after 2 seconds of thinking about it I know there's rationale behind it.

Try not to presume people are so quick to judge, rather that people are just feeling whatever they feel instinctively, and it is what it is. They probably don't even know why they feel what they do, it's just bad intuition not ignorance.

I think it's because of cognitive dissonance. The combination of "I don't have a mask" and "masks are helpful" is painful.

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