I think the biggest problem with American culture is the core belief that caring about other people is a form of slavery.

Here in Ireland, the government has not made mask wearing mandatory except in some niche cases. Thats cus they havent been advised to do so by the health experts. Thats cus there isnt really conclusive data showing masks work in most cases. Instead they are stressing (and always have been) stuff that *is* strongly supported by data, not touching your face, handwashing, coughing / sneezing into ure elbow, social distancing.

Factors why the data is showing masks to not work could be..
* When someone has a mask they think they're fine and are more lax about the fundamentals (above)
* Using a mask effectively is kinda tricky. Eg. if you touch the mask with ure hands taking it off / putting it on / adjusting it then you may have just have gotten corona on ure hands are are spreading it to everything you touch. Using a mask and having it actually work requires training and discipline.
* Theres a big difference in effectiveness between medical grade masks and simple face coverings.

Basically if you're in a confined space with a lot of people and you sneezed, a face covering would help there, but thats about it. You'd be much better off not being in that confined space with a lot of people in the 1st place.

I'm ready to turn the country over to this guy and his generation.

What I find interesting is how quickly views on wearing masks have changed. Here in Germany, our government advised against wearing masks as late as February or March, saying masks are of questionable efficiency and people imploring for mandatory use were inciting panic (which coincided with a massive lack of masks supply). Weeks later, wearing a mask started to be mandatory in stores and on public transportation. The numbers speak for themselves. Meanwhile, Asian countries were like "if you feel sick, wear a mask."

In short: shut the fuck up and put on your mask.

but muh freedumbs