Could have a bunch of masked people in line feeling “safe” only to find out they have a problem.
That is the same problem we had with the wild type. Frankly, there are certain people (over 65, certain pre-existing health conditions, obese) that should not have been with strangers with or without the mask. Period.
The "wear a mask and you're safe" notion that was widespread (and frankly still is) throughout the world is responsible for a significant portion of not only our case spread but our mortality.
Masks are a single piece of the mitigation puzzle; not a cure. And it's why virtually every mask mandate in our country failed miserably. As soon as we reopened but mandated masks, people went out into the public again and spread the virus. You can quite easily get and spread COVID-19 while wearing a mask.
How we landed on equating masks to vaccines is utterly perplexing and beyond me. There is this notion that a vaccinated person without a mask is the same as an unvaccinated person with a mask. They couldn't be more different in their ability to prevent the spread of disease.
People criticize the "masks don't work crowd" but imagine if we didn't trust masks from day one. People wouldn't think twice about needlessly being in crowded indoor spaces. The mask is what made that possible. Imagine how much distance you would keep from people in a maskless COVID-19 world. True distancing (staying home; not the 6 ft. nonsense) is infallible.
I'm
not advocating for lockdowns. I'm advocating for people having a true and accurate understanding of their level of risk. The mask skewed that understanding exponentially in the wrong direction; it still does to this day.