What a horrible idea. I'm not willing to wear a mask just to avoid a cold. We cannot allow irrational germaphobes to seize control of our society in the name of "safety".

jesus people they said they hope it stays: aka socially it becomes normalized. No one is advocating forcing people to wear masks forever.

I very strongly hope that it doesn't become socially normalized.

Hat, sunglasses, mask now recommended for the facial-recognition future.

Any society that normalizes this level of paranoid hypochondria will be a dead society before long.

Japan seems to be doing ok.

In Japan, it seems that people wear masks when they are ill as a consideration to others to avoid passing on the illness in a crowded area. Also as a red flag to others, e.g. to the elderly or immune compromised, that they may want to avoid you right now.

I frankly don’t mind that. It’s only for a limited time (while you feel ill, or suspect you are coming down with something), it’s very cheap and only mildly annoying. There is the side benefit that it makes you think twice before you go out if you think you might be infectious (is this trip really necessary?).

My personal opinion, which reasonable people may of course disagree with depending on how they weight various factors, is that forcing people to regularly hide their faces in public is too large a price to pay to avoid sometimes getting a cold.

Maybe not forcing, but if people did it as a curtesy to not get other people sick? Of course, that already happens in some places, and will never happen in others.

Pre-covid Japan had the right balance IMO. It was common to (voluntarily) wear a mask in public when you had a cold (or didn't feel like putting on make-up), but no one was going to force you to wear one.

People are really confusing the effects of "wearing a mask on the bus" with the effects of "closing offices and schools down."