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Unless you are wearing a full bunny suit, there are still plenty of membranes and fun bits that viruses can get into. I still mask up when I go shopping or whatever, but I also acknowledge that I am fucked either way on a plane and so forth.
Masking is at its most effective when the people who are actually sick wear them. It blocks a large percentage of the greatest source of germs (mouth and nose) passively.
Also: As fun as it is to... use eugenics to tell the white supremacists off, it generally won't be the chuds who suffer the most. It will be the immunocompromised and those on various medications that otherwise wreak havoc with their bodies.
Iirc, glasses help reduce infections, too.
Back in 2020 I'd wear my p99 respirator and goggles at the grocery store, then a full strip into the washer and shower as soon as I came home.
Now I'm more relaxed: n95 or kn94 plus standard prescription glasses, washing hands up to the elbow (makes me feel like I'm on MASH). I still strip as soon as I get home, but not because of COVID.
I've gotten relaxed at work over the summer because there were minimal people in the library. I'm going to go back to full masking outside my office now that the students are back, especially since I don't have a new flu or COVID vaccine available to me.
Glasses help in the sense that they protect your eyes from direct splatter. They do not help once germs are aerosolized and being recirculated constantly.
But yeah, my basic model is more or less a kn95 (that I always should replace more often than I do) to cover my face in stores or whatever where I am not expected to be standing in a crowd for hours on end or sitting down to eat. I keep some with me on travel days but don't bother to wear it unless I myself feel sick because I am going to inevitably need to eat or drink something or I am in a metal box where all the air is being recirculated constantly.
But yeah... I at least know that I am most likely not susceptible to long COVID since I literally caught COVID when it was all kicking off back in 2020 and have gotten it again a few times at varying levels of vaccinated/boostered (last summer was definitely bad but nowhere near as bad as being patient 3 or 4 was). Still gonna mask up but I "know" I'll be fine and am weirdly more worried about the flu.
But... a lot of people are going to die.
Yep. It makes me feel helpless and I hate it.
Side story:
I had the sweetest young store clerk at the grocery checkout. We'd already chitchatted about something, so it wasn't awkward when he shyly asked if I was sick, if that was why I masked.
I told him "no, I'm fine, but my roommate's immune system is weak AF. Oh, and my dad died of COVID and I'm still a bit sore there." and he got big eyes and gave his condolences.
I'd guess he was 14 when my dad died (Jan 2021), when a lot of people's dads died. That's a quarter of a lifetime ago for him. It's been an age. /feeling old and nostalgic