When there is no obligation to wear a mask and covid-cautious people wear one nevertheless, we sometimes encounter strange or awkward situations.

Below, I am proposing an easy way to improve this.

“Are you sick?”

No, we usually are not. Because we wear a mask, we very rarely get infected.

And even if we were infectious, it would be less dangerous for people around us. Because we wear a valve-less mask, we do not exhale aerosols with virus or bacteria.

Good quality, well fitted masks strongly inhibit airborne disease transmission in both ways, so they protect the person who wears them as well as other persons around them.

We wear masks because we know how airborne disease transmission works and because we want to stay healthy ourselves and also we would rather not infect other people in case we were infectious.

If you see us wearing a valved mask, you can also assume that we are not knowingly sick.

“You may take your mask off here!”

Sometimes said by well-meaning people, who think that would do us a favour. Sometimes said by people who feel uncomfortable just by seeing a mask.

We usually are aware when we are not obliged to wear a mask or when it was not specifically demanded from us, but we prefer to wear one nevertheless for good reasons:

• We read scientific papers and are well informed. We know how bad it really is and why we have to be cautious.
• We might have known or unknown medical conditions making us vulnerable.
• Some of us know people who have died or who are severely impacted by COVID.
• It could be also that we actually are sick and wear a mask because of that.

The free seats close to the lone masker

Strange situations also happen in public transport:

Even if it is crowded, nobody sits close to us, because we usually are the one lone masker.

Sometimes combined with being stared at.

While we appreciate the additional space and non-masked people keeping some distance from us, it still feels strange sometimes.