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Comment by dragonwriter | Hacker News Reader

> And I'm vaccinated, everyone in my country who wants to be vaccinated is. Why should I reduce the quality of my life for people who made a choice and took a risk?

Vaccination isn’t a magic talisman against infection, or against illness if infected, or against transmitting the disease if infected. It reduces the likelihood of each, all other things being equal, but it isn't a guarantee against any of them (and is less so against Delta, “Delta Plus", and apparently Lambda than other strains so far.

Masking further reduces both inbound and outbound transmission, and is just a basic precaution.

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OK, so basically humanity so far was in the wrong for not wearing masks for cold, flu, and every other transmissible disease, and we should wear masks forever in public?

YES! They did it in many asian countries before. When you feel under the weather you'd go to work/town in the mask not to spread.

Also cold/flu cases are way down due to people masking up and cleaning hands.

A lot of people complain about seatbelts being uncomfortable during driving, and yet its a law to wear them. Why?

That's not a sign of good hygiene, rather a sign of these countries dystopian work laws/ethics, where sick leave is apparently not a thing.

> rather a sign of these countries dystopian work laws/ethics, where sick leave is apparently not a thing

Oh yes, I too take sick leave when I have runny nose until its gone

Perhaps you should - if we all did, we'd reduce the spread massively.

Asking people to wear a mask when they feel sick is not the current ask.

People have worn masks for all of those things. Have you ever set foot in an Asian country? (Or at least seem videos, pictures, media from one?). I've even witnessed mask wearing within the Asian communities in my (western) country.

Long before covid mask wearing has been an insanely common thing to do when you're sick.

Yes, mask wearing when sick is very common there. The vast majority of people do not (or rather, did not) wear masks during normal day-to-day life. There is a massive difference between wearing a mask all the time when in public vs wearing one when you've got the sniffles.

> OK, so basically humanity so far was in the wrong for not wearing masks for cold, flu,

Masking in flu season isn’t uncommon in some parts of the world, and it was a lot more common during the 1918-1920 pandemic, so, “humanity” as a whole is not a constant.

Cultural variation aside, different respiratory viruses have different combinations of infectiousness and deadliness and responses to various countermeasures, so their are rational reasons the reactions to each, given a constant utility function, would differ. The common cold, the 2019 seasonal flu, the 1919 pandemic flu, and COVID-19 are all very different things.

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