9 Reasons Why I Still Mask Up

I’m so sick of masks, yet…

The author, photographed by his wife just before his glasses fogged up.

Masks drive me nuts. I don’t like the way they rub on my face and make conversation difficult. I can’t stand how they fog my glasses. I hate smelling my own coffee breath. Yet I still wear one when I go into just about any indoor space beyond our home. I’m not perfect. I take it off to eat in a restaurant on rare occasions. I forget it sometimes when making a quick dash into a store, then debate with myself whether I should go back to the car and fetch it. I’m no angel.

But having interviewed dozens of informed, thoughtful and helpful scientists for numerous articles about the coronavirus since early 2020, I know too much about how it gets around and how to stop it.

Not gonna tell you what to do, but if you’re on the fence about masks, or getting really, really sick of masking up, perhaps it’ll help to hear the reasons why this health reporter continues to inconvenience himself.

In no particular order:

It’s polite

Yesterday I was in a retail store that doesn’t require masks, and most people weren’t wearing one. Yet one of the employees was masked, as were a couple of customers. It’s logical to assume these people were concerned about catching the virus. They might even be at high risk of severe complications or…