I’m starting to get frustrated with the amount of times I have to repeat this.
Wearing a mask is to protect others, not yourself
In almost every case where someone was careful and got infected, they received the virus from someone who was not. You can wear a mask all day long, but if someone with COVID sneezes on you, it’s goodbye Bsamim! Why you ask? Because there’s only minimal protection from wearing a mask. What it does is protect others from getting the virus from a masked person.
There is a lot scientific validity to “It could have been much worse”. In shuls in my community where they enforced mask wearing, there were almost no cases of transmission within the shul. In those that didn’t, almost everyone got the virus at some point. That’s just anecdotal. There is actual research that shows that places where people wore masks had much lower levels of viral transmission.
This isn’t a case of “Elu v’Elu Divrei Elokim Chaim”. There are not two sides to the issue. Wear a mask for everyone’s sake. Please.