I had some serious respiration issues when I was an infant and the masks give me a constant state of panic due to the association in particular with the humid air (I can't tolerate saunas too). At the time I was basically choking to death several times and needed a steam machine to keep my airways open. This association is too deep to ignore.

For this reason I really hate the masks and in particular the "broad brush" nature of the regulations here. There is just absolutely no way to get an exception. I've lost a lot of trust in society over the past years. I know it's an edge case but my work, public health agencies etc, none of them really give a damn.

For example at the office I've proposed to do a self-test every day I go in, that's a small deal for me. Protection is not perfect (they can give false negatives) but neither are masks. But they just don't care (even though I had to do a mandatory training praising their "commitment to mental health"). They told me straight out they don't care whether I wear a mask or not but they don't want to set a bad example. It's all politics and virtue signalling. This is what I mean by 'health theatre'.