"Wearing a mask or not is my right."

Robbing a bank should be legal because in a democratic country I am allowed to roam wherever I want and take whatever I find. That doesn’t sound right. Why do we not think robbing a bank is abnormal? Why is it wrong to do so? Morally, it’s because we all live collectively on the unsaid trust of respecting the ownership of others' property and expecting the same in return. This trust is what forms the foundation of the society we live in. This goes for all the laws too. Technically we can break the law, however we are expected to follow it to maintain the construct of society. These are the reasons we are able to function collectively and peacefully.

Similarly, wearing the mask is a sign of trust and respect of the other person’s health and safety during a pandemic. One of the biggest problems with COVID-19 is the abundance of asymptomatic patients. They go undetected upon physical inspection but are still effective carriers of the virus. Yes, ideally only infected individuals should have the need to wear a mask. The problem is that there’s no way of knowing that a person is infected just by physical observation. In the current situation where we don’t have a vaccine and the preventive measures bank on the fact that everyone follows them, it is important that everyone wears a mask. Since it is so easy to contract COVID-19 and so common to be asymptomatic, you may not know it and yet be a transmitter of the virus, potentially being the cause of the death of another person.

The reason we function in a society is the underlying fundamental trust. For us to beat the virus, we need to trust that you wear the mask for everyone else on the basis that everyone else wears the mask for your safety. Just as you may not believe that you have the virus, there could be others like you who think similarly, don’t wear a mask, and potentially put your life in danger by unwittingly transmitting the virus to you. Therefore, it is important for everyone to wear a mask, not just as a safety precaution, but also as a sign of mutual respect.