To make mask-wearing as safe as people like to think it is, you would have to wear the masks everywhere except in your home and only take them off there when you live alone. You would have to change the mask every few hours, never touching your face or pulling it down and touching it even for a moment, because the effect would already be switched off.
Every surgeon knows this, masks in everyday life can and will never be worn properly because everyday life is not a surgical operating space. It has long been known in professional circles that masks in everyday life are completely useless for a general public in this respect and merely reflect the mental aspect of their wearers (being perceived as safe, as a sign of respect or whatever). The psychological part plays a huge role and the medical explanation is ignored because people simply want to ignore it.
It is safe to say that correct mask wearing, as dictated in laboratories for example, does not in fact happen in everyday life and just observing everyone wearing masks in public confirms this to an overwhelming degree. People sweat, cough and breathe under their masks worn over several days, you see traces of makeup, even in dentists' offices, and sheer dirty masks everywhere.
It is far from reality to assume that life takes place under strict laboratory conditions and insane to even claim or want to do so. But that is what everyone would have to do in order to have some kind of protection.
It has to be stated that here the psychological aspect of both (mask wearers and mask non-wearers) is opposed to each other. Thus, it is not acceptable that the psychology of one is played off against the psychology of the other because, if one brings the mental condition into the field, both groups do not (cannot) do justice to each other. This has opened up a field of conflict that the legislator has brought into being without having fulfilled its obligation to prove that the resulting benefit is worth the harm. Which it cannot possibly do, for the aforementioned reasons.
I think mask, much like your mother telling you to cover your mouth, slows the velocity and reduces the amount of virus in the air. As for totaling stopping infections I doubt that as much as it would with particles that don't land on your hand when you cover your mouth. I haven't been sick in nearly two and half years. Twice I thought I was coming down with something, one time when I was exposed before I knew family members had covid, but I did the protocol of American Frontline Doctors and it was short lived. I do live alone though, am careful to not let people get in my face, if I hear someone cough or sneeze I quickly move away. We have family gatherings outside in the summer but in the winter we basically have gone separate events with each family than all of us gathering up inside one house. Once we did but we increased the humidity. I think the most odd thing I noticed as a grandmother was the reduced nose wiping of the grand kids during all this. Before covid I was always telling them don't wipe your nose on your sleeve. Two grandson's have had it twice but got it from parents and not from schools. Their school district was slow to remove mask mandates while outlying districts removed theirs, they had outbreaks that followed. Still though when they finally got the all clear to stop wearing mask they, including the teachers were happy. I think when it was determined that younger healthier people were better off getting natural immunity it took a lot of stress off the schools. I am fortunate enough to live in a city that seems content to just let everyone decide what they want to do for themselves. Once you start forcing people to do stuff they don't want to do it makes it really difficult. I actually thought during the period of time people were forced to do it there was more hostility towards each other, once the mandates were lifted people stopped arguing with each other over it. I see a young person with a mask I just think they have an underlying condition just as they probably think I am doing it because I am older, the main thing is now is that everyone just seems to be content to make their own choice.
I cannot really rely on my perception as far as so-called infectious diseases are concerned. I would never have observed and interpreted anything that showed up in me as a cold or flu before 2020 so meticulously with Argus eyes. One was simply sick for some days, then healthy again. That was it. I never paid attention to whether I "might have caught it from someone" and I didn't care because it was normal to have a cold or cough or fever once a year or every two years.
It sounds to me like you are counting it a success for you not to have gotten sick in more than two years. I probably see illness a little differently. It's an expression that something needs to be cured, treated or put to rest.
For me, coughs and colds are part of a process where my body gets rid of waste, just as the excretion of liquids and solids is part of the necessary disposal (going to the toilet). Just as sweat and any fluids that come out of the body are merely an expression of the fact that the human being is getting rid of some substances that it can no longer utilise. So, for example, a cold and a cough are not per se something "to be avoided" for me.
For me, for example, the question arises of what to do with the nasal mucus or deposits in the bronchi if these processes are artificially interrupted or suppressed (e.g. with medication). How and where should these substances then go if they cannot be excreted through the usual transport routes? According to my logic, my body must then look for other ways, and possibly much more laborious ones, to get rid of what it wants to get rid of. Other organs are put under more strain and have to do more, for example.
Probably you know that fever is a process that helps the body to deal with the microscopic waste disposal mechanisms and my understanding is that the acute event of fever is a quick fix to speed up this process.
Of course, what we then notice of it is pain, great discomfort. But why should this be avoided?
From my point of view, the policy of the last few years has caused an immense avoidance attitude, which I basically consider to be very difficult. The consequences of avoidance (social contact and everything related to it) are the greatest horror for me personally and I cope with it very badly.
Anyway, thank you for your relaxed answer and I am pleased that you also see that it is possible to get along with people who think differently or that it is better not to hate each other. Nevertheless, the conflict still exists and I wish that people would not silence relationships to death.