That's GP's point. 6 months ago it made sense for everyone to wear masks. Today it doesn't. If someone today insists that everyone should still wear masks everywhere, then they're doing so for political reasons rather than scientific ones.

It's okay to do harmless things for political reasons, and bad to do harmful things for political reasons.

It's ridiculous to try to turn that into a claim of hypocrisy and that everything is just politics.

Continuing to wear a mask yourself is harmless, but trying to make everyone else continue wearing masks is harmful.

Oh, I see what you're saying. Yes, that's true at this point in time, but I don't think that's what anthonygd was arguing. They were complaining about the act of personally wearing a mask without a scientific basis.

It's probably late for you to see this but here's an attempt to clarify... my complaint is with wearing a mask as a statement _while_ complaining about the other side being overly aggressive in making their statement.

Essentially 6 months ago you somewhat had the moral high ground because science was on your side, but now it's just personal preference.

If you feel safer with a mask, that's fine (it might do some miniscule good). If you wear a mask to show everyone where you fall on the political spectrum, than just own up to the fact that you're being divisive.

You can call it "divisive", but the two actions are not equivalent.

In terms of merely making a statement, then the anti-mask option would be something like wearing a shirt or mask with a message about how this whole mask thing is stupid.

The objection to people going maskless 6 months ago is not that they were making a statement, it's that they were endangering people in aggregate.

When you say "Was it lip-service and posturing 6 months ago or is it now? Do you value science or not?", that would only be justified if the science was specifically saying not to wear a mask right now. But that isn't true and has never been true. Wearing an unnecessary mask has always been fine.

> trying to make everyone else continue wearing masks is harmful.

Who's doing that?

I don't think that necessarily follows. Someone who still thinks we should remain masked for a while longer might believe that we should continue to err on the side of caution, because we've seen infection spikes when restrictions are eased or lifted too quickly. The CDC's initial mask recommendation came later than it should have, so why is it so hard to believe that lifting that recommendation is coming too early?

Remember that, while the CDC is advised and informed by scientists, they are ultimately a public policy agency. The science matters, to be sure, but what matters most is that the best outcome is achieved, based on people's behavior.

I think they're recommending dropping mask requirements now not because it's the best science, but because vaccine demand has been dropping, and they believe that giving people real-world, day-to-day incentives to vaccinate will convince some of the people hesitant to get vaccinated. And I agree with them on that, and I think it's the right move, even if it carries some risk.