Wearing masks has been an all-year struggle for most. It is viewed by most as an effective way to prevent Covid-19. Yet the 83% of Americans that think it is most effective to wear their mask, it is very inconsistent. These masks are very much an inconvenience to everyone’s day, and something many people have looked forward to getting rid of. Even some hospitals have charged up to $7 per mask even though many think they should be free. Out of personal experience, there are many negatives to the masks that I am here to share.
One example of a negative effect from wearing a mask is smelling your own breath. Sometimes in the morning we were all in a bit of a hurry and might not get to brush our teeth. Later we will face the effects of this when our breath comes back and hits us like a boomerang while our noses are trapped inside that tiny mask. Even after you just went out to eat and chose a food with garlic, you’d have to face the effects of it. As soon as that mask goes on, you’ll be tortured by your own smelly hot breath. It is not a good time and might even make your eyes water.
One of my least favorite things about masks is having to wear one when you’re sweaty. After a big workout, all you want to do is get a big sip of water and take some breaths, but you’re under a mask struggling to breath and not able to take it off until you’re outside. Not only is this sweat annoying and gets your mask wet, but it also can cause a lot of “maskne.” When sweat is trapped sitting on your face without any air to get to it, you’ll most likely be greeted by a fresh new pimple within the next following days.
One of the biggest pre-Covid things in school was being able to look at your friend across the room and talk by reading lips. You’d get all the tea mid-class and must wait until the end of class to run up to your friend and hear more. Yet, because of Covid, this ability was taken away. Now when you look across the room, you just see your friend sitting with a mask covering their mouth. Having nothing to think about and gossiping throughout class now, we are forced to focus on the entire class period having no need to run up to a friend after class.
When in a rush, we don’t really think about what mask we are wearing, or we may not have any in the car and are forced to wear a really embarrassing mask. For example, people with younger siblings may have things like rainbows, unicorns, monster trucks, etc, on their masks so they want to wear them more. But if one time when you don’t have a mask in the car, you may just wound-up walking into a store with a fluffy unicorn on your face keeping your head down in each aisle out of embarrassment.
Some days we forget about having to wear a mask. You’ll wake up in the morning wanting to really feel good that day, so you put on a cute outfit and start doing your makeup. After you put on foundation, bronzer, highlighter, and blush, then you’ll realize that now you just have to put on a mask to go out. All the hard work you just spent on your makeup is wasted. There isn’t any saving it either because the hot air and rubbing if the mask will wipe that all off. All you’ll be left with at the end of the day is a mask stained completely with foundation.
Lastly, another factor and struggle of these masks is the tightness some may have. When wearing a mask all day, you want to be as comfortable as can be, but some masks make this difficult. Tight masks can cause the string to pull on your ears making them very sore. Not only does it hurt, but it also makes your ears stick out, and nobody wants to be walking around school with their ears out to the sides like a monkey. You always must choose the type of mask that works best for you.
Although masks have been a big part of our lives for a long period of time, it is starting to come to an end. President Biden announced that if you are vaccinated, you do not need to wear your mask out to stores and other places unless it is mandatory. I know that in a lot of places they are also requiring many of the workers to still wear masks. Currently, a total of 135,087,319 people are vaccinated meaning they are basically maskless in most situations. The current age that you can get vaccinated is 9+ up, and all vaccinations are free, so you’ll no longer have to pay the price of wearing these tedious masks.