When did you stop?
I have been wearing N95s everywhere since the pandemic began and I don't think I've been infected yet, but according to the wastewater data, it seems the virus is still very prevalent in population.
In fact, it seems another wave is building right now.
We were both in our 60s when this crud began, the low end of the high risk group, so could be were more cautious than most.
My wife and I also have worn masks a lot - but we also tend to avoid crowded indoor events almost entirely now, and use hand sanitizer whenever we leave a public place. We were also quick to get each of our vaccinations.
Wearing a N95 mask correctly and washing your hands consistently is _quite_ effective at protecting you (and others).
Wearing a nonsense cloth mask, not terribly well fitted, protects you a little bit but mostly protects others some.
In between those it varies.
Nothing does much if you're not washing your hands before touching your face.
People also ignore that initial viral load can be a lot lower from masks (depending) even if you do get infected, which can help with severity.
If the sequence is: 1- study that shows correlation between X and Y 2- someone says "X causes Y" referencing the study
then it is appropriate to point out that correlation does not imply causation. X may cause Y but you can't claim it based on the correlation study only. The burden of proof is on you. Nobody needs to disprove causation here.
One of our adult daughters refused to get vaxxed and came to visit for Christmas in 2022 and just 5 days after she arrived she got sick af here. She was in bed for 5 days. Her 2 children, who were 15 and 11 years old and not vaxxed didn't come down with any symptoms at all though and they stayed very close to her.
That same daughter has been infected 2 or 3 times since then and is now dealing with "long covid" issues.
I expect we will see another wave soon as well. People will be gathering and sharing it again. That happened last year and nothing much has changed since aside from the severity of infections, and that probably had do so with natural immunity from prior infections, and folks are still dying from it.
The vaxxes have worked for us though so we'll keep up on them.