The mask is to protect others as much as it is to protect yourself. You can be contagious and spread it for up to two weeks without symptoms. It's unfortunate that wearing a mask is such a hardship for you.
If you protect yourself then you also protect others, because you can't infect others unless you are infected yourself. This focus on filtering exhaled breath just results in people wearing masks incorrectly to avoid the problems of valveless masks, making the numbers even worse than the previous calculation. It's also much easier to motivate people with self-protection than altruism, especially when the people they're helping often don't reciprocate. We've had more than long enough to solve the production problems by now, so N95 should be the minimum standard.
Maybe I am, unknown to myself, a superhero, and my power is not having a hard time wearing a mask. Or maybe I'm not a spoiled entitled brat. Not sure anymore.
There is literally no reason for a vaccinated individual to wear a mask. Vaccines work. They are the ticket out of this. Not masks.
Where has all of the concern for the immunocompromised been before this? The flu is quite deadly, you know.
But this is all about statistics. Simple masks reduce the chance of catching it by some small amount (say 15%) and reduce the emission of virus particles by something like 50% (it all depends on the mask). This doesn't mean the odds are cut in half; it means the exponent of the spread of the virus is cut in half.
https://uwaterloo.ca/news/media/study-supports-widespread-us...