n0: Regarding the current pandemic, the chaver will be better off just by not mingling with all the unmasked amei ha’aretz.
yes, I think so too. It is just feels very uncomfortable in our times to consider a swath of Torah-observant Jewry to be in a such category. We are all feel close together being beseeched by outside forces and internal challenge from Reform, socialists, etc so that the classical idea of am haaertz sounds foreign. I think Gemora has dual feelings towards Am.H – we can rely on them doing certain things, we remedy demai, not fully reject it, the person who ate at R Yannai …