I just 86’ed my first patient from my practice for refusing to wear a mask when in my office. He said it wasn’t a political but a personal choice and that he felt healthy and saw no point in wearing one. When I gave him a mask, he put it on but wrong; under his nose not over his nose. So much for preventing the respiratory microdroplets that are released when breathing and which contain the virus, if present (like wearing a condom with a hole in it to prevent pregnancy), and can stay in the air up to four hours.
Your personal choice should not hurt another. For example, you have a choice to wear a seat belt, skydive without a parachute, play Russian roulette, stare into the sun until you are blind. None of these choices will hurt another. The choice to NOT wear a mask does. Your personal choice could cause other people to get Covid-19 and die. You may be one of the special people who never had any Covid-19 symptoms and never felt sick, but when you had it you shed the virus every time you exhaled. If you were wearing a mask, that wasn’t a problem because you limited the spread to your mask and a bit beyond.
Mask wearing (unless it is an N95 worn properly) does NOT protect you from Covid-19 but it does protect others from YOU if you have it! This pandemic in the United States has gotten out of hand because many people are refusing to wear a mask and to social distance. We now have the dubious distinction of having one out of every four deaths from Covid-19 globally right here. We are a great country but currently, we are all looking like idiots in the eyes of the world. And it is seriously impacting the ability for businesses to reopen safely. So, please, mask up. It is a sign that you respect others and will help the economy.