You can stay cautious if you don’t feel safe.
While I’m fully vaccinated and boosted, I still wear my mask and endeavor to maintain at least a little bit of social distance while I’m out and about. I’m aware that, in all likelihood, I probably could forgo the mask entirely at this point. I don’t live with any unvaccinated or at-risk people, so even if I did pick up some viral particles from an unvaccinated person, the odds of me spreading them to someone vulnerable are extremely low. Even so, I choose to continue wearing the mask because it’s what I’m comfortable with.
The past couple of years has been varying degrees of severe on everyone. You don’t have to look very far to find someone throwing a temper tantrum over having to wear a face mask in a public place, while there have also been lots of people who have been more than willing to wear a mask as long as possible. Whatever you’re personally comfortable with, I’d say it’s safe to indulge that, provided you’re cognizant of a few caveats and risk factors.
First and absolutely, positively foremost, if you haven’t been vaccinated, you should still wear your mask. Lest we forget, the whole reason we wore these dumb things in the first place was so we A: didn’t spread the coronavirus, and B: didn’t die. Even if people around you are de-masking, there could still be viral particles floating about. Until you’re fully vaccinated, play it safe.
As I mentioned before, you should also be more considerate about masking if you live with older folks or people with compromised immune systems. Even if you are vaccinated, it’s not a good idea to risk becoming a viral vector. If they’re vaccinated as well, then it’s less of a problem.
Finally, no matter what your current feelings are on the pandemic’s status, they are only yours. If other people want to keep wearing their masks for whatever reason, that’s their business, not yours. Don’t be like those jerks on Twitter you see screaming at people for wearing masks.
