The governor of Arizona has stated that he’s leaving it up to the mayors in each city. Most of the cities have said no, but Phoenix and Tucson and some others have said yes.
Social distancing and hygiene are much more effective than those paper masks. Some people are wearing home-made ones out of socks or underwear LOL.
The masks are extremely effective in combination with social distancing. This is simply a fact; it’s been studied extensively. For one example of such a study, the medical study I linked above has a pretty good illustration of why. That video makes it pretty apparent.
That would work regardless of how dirty or used the mask was.
That’s what I was saying earlier in the thread.
The worst part of living in a faceless society in which everyone is wearing a mask is the lack of smiles and facial expressions. I thrive on exchanging smiles with people, but can’t do it if everyone is wearing a mask. It’s very depressing… like walking in a world full of dead people that all look alike.
It’s even worse for my deaf spouse, Sara. She is an excellent lip reader, and throughout her life, this has been her only method of being able to communicate with people who don’t know sign language. With everyone wearing a mask, it’s as if she has been thrown back into a world of silence. She has endured a great deal of frustration in restaurants and stores where a staff member refuses to pull down their mask, even after she has told them she’s deaf and needs to read their lips.
also I find that wearing a mask, and seeing people with masks all around, is very anxiety inducing.
Copied from an OSHA certified friend:
So Masks?
I am OSHA 10&30 certified. I know some of you are too. I don’t really know WHY OSHA hasn’t come forward and stopped the nonsense BUT
I wanna cover 3 things
• N95 masks and masks with exhale ports
• surgical masks
• filter or cloth masks
Okay so upon further inspection OSHA says some masks are okay and not okay in certain situations.
If you’re working with fumes and aerosol chemicals and you give your employees the wrong masks and they get sick you can be sued.
• N95 masks: are designed for CONTAMINATED environments. That means when you exhale through N95 the design is that you are exhaling into contamination. The exhale from N95 masks are vented to breath straight out without filtration. They don’t filter the air on the way out. They don’t need to.
Conclusion: if you’re in Stewart’s and the guy with Covid has N95 mask his covid breath is unfiltered being exhaled into Stewart’s (because it was designed for already contaminated environments, it’s not filtering your air on the way out)
• Surgical Mask: these masks were designed and approved for STERILE environments. The amount of particles and contaminants in the outside and indoor environments where people are CLOGG these masks very Very quickly. The moisture from your breath combined with the clogged mask with render it “useless” IF you come in contact with Covid and your mask traps it You become a walking virus dispenser. Everytime you put your mask on you are breathing the germs from EVERYWHERE you went. They should be changed or thrown out every “20-30 minutes in a non sterile environment”
Cloth masks: today three people pointed to their masks as the walked by me entering Lowe’s. They said “ya gotta wear your mask BRO” I said very clearly “those masks don’t work bro, in fact they MAKE you sicker” the “pshh’d” me.
By now hopefully you all know CLOTH masks do not filter anything. You mean the American flag one my aunt made? Yes. The one with sunflowers that looks so cute? Yes. The bandanna, the cut up t-shirt, the scarf ALL of them offer NO FILTERING whatsoever. As you exhale you are ridding your lungs of contaminants and carbon dioxide. Cloth masks trap this carbon dioxide the best. It actually risks health. The moisture caught in these masks can become mildew ridden over night. Dry coughing, enhanced allergies, sore throat are all symptoms of a micro-mold in your mask.
Ultimate Answer: N95 blows the virus into the air from a contaminated person.
The surgical mask is not designed for the outside world and will not filter the virus upon inhaling through it. It’s filtration works on the exhale. (Like a vacuum bag it only works one way)
Cloth masks are WORSE than none.
The CDC wants us to keep wearing masks. The masks don’t work.
Wash your hands. Sanitize your hands. Don’t touch stuff. Wash your phone. Don’t touch people. And keep your distance. Why? Because your breath stinks, your deodorant is failing, your shoes are old and stink, that shirts not clean, I like my space. Trust me I can hear you from here. Lots of reasons. But trust me. The masks do not work.
*Occupational Safety & Health Administration sited.
The top American organization for safety.
They regulate and educate asbestos workers, surgical rooms, you name it.
If your mask gives you security wear it, just know it is a false sense of security.
If stores stopped enforcing it no one would continue this nonsense.
I suppose I should take my own suggestion 
I can’t speak for California or Japan or Arizona, but over here I see people wearing masks while driving around, by themselves, with their windows rolled up. This doesn’t make any sense to me. It can only mean that they THINK they are protecting themselves.
People are afraid . . . the governments don’t know . . . politicians would rather throw the baby out with the bathwater than risk making any mistakes . . . our governor is focusing on making “Juneteenth” a state holiday instead of moving forward to Phase 3 in spite of positive numbers . . . . it’s an election year.
Connect all those dots together for yourselves, folks . . . 
As in any other outbreak of diseases we have had in the past, common sense should prevail: wash your hands, catch coughs and sneezes in the crook of your elbow, stay home if you are sick, and don’t kiss any strangers.
But . . . if wearing a mask really makes you feel better, then I say go for it . . .
Cheers, Joe
@Jazzbass19 Joe, I couldn’t agree with you more…
And yes, here in Phoenix I see people all the time driving with no passengers in the car and wearing a mask. I just chuckle to myself.
It’s no secret that I am opposed to this notion that wearing a piece of paper or scrap of cloth on your face is going to stop the spread of the Covid-19 virus.
However, I firmly believe in everyone’s right to make their own decision. If the mask gives you a sense of security, or you think you’re doing something to stop the virus, by all means go ahead and wear it.
With that said, I won’t ever stop anyone from wearing a mask, but I do ask; if a deaf person asks you to pull it down so they can read your lips, please give them that courtesy. Life has been hard enough on that deaf person without adding yet another obstacle to their enjoyment of life.
Well that’s conflating a lot of different things.
N95 masks - yes it is correct that these do not stop anything from escaping. As your friend correctly notes, these are for protecting the wearer from harsh environments (or disease, which is why high risk health workers wear them now - because this disease is killing health workers at an alarming rate.)
But for common people wearing masks, we are not generally talking about N95 here (even if they could get them). We’re talking about the much more common surgical masks. Your friend also correctly notes that these are not very effective at protecting the wearer, which is again not their primary function in stopping the spread of disease. They are there to keep people from spreading their own germs, which they are very effective at, even when not new. Which has been well studied and demonstrated, and not just by the example of such a study I linked above.
So basically even though correct in details, your friend conflated the idea that since N95 masks do not prevent exhalation of the virus, and surgical masks don’t protect the wearer directly, that masks are worthless. Do you see the problem here with that argument?
Surgical masks are very effective at limiting the impact of exhalation of germs from an individual. And this is why they are important for helping contain this.
People’s makeshift cotton masks - I don’t have any data on how effective these are, but I suspect better than nothing at containing exhaled germs to an individual. Maybe not much though, yeah.
I do this all the time because I simply forget I am wearing it
But mask wearing is common here so it’s not unusual to see. People are used to them and just leave them on.
Yeah this has to be tough, and that’s a good suggestion for people to remember.
I’m living in Germany and I have recently seen joggers and bike riders wearing masks. The pressure put on human individuals by media and governments to make them scared without factual proof of measures is for some, enormous. Common sense today is hard to find and that is very sad. For me Corona has put a dark veil on mankind not because of it’s nature but because of how we have reacted (with fear).
I wear a mask only when made to and yes it does not work in my case.
We’ve burned witches in the past. They were probably the homeopaths of their time! Time to start using some common sense. Yes, witches burn because they are made of wood! 
Thanks Pam, I’ll be sure to put my mask down as soon as I encounter a hearing impaired person.
Namaste, LoggerBoy
That’s a really good point. I am dealing with that issue at work, I have a partially deaf person in my team, and I really don’t want him disadvantaged during the planning of how we eventually get to use our office space again.
People are suggesting mask use in the office, but for lip readers or people that struggle to hear clearly, it’s a nightmare. I have to keep pointing this out to the team’s doing the return to work planning.
When I first saw this thread, I was afraid this would happen.
I am going to respond to this thread once, and I’m not gonna sugarcoat it.
@LoggerBoy, you and I are both not virologists.
But I happen to be under close observation right now, because I came down with retroperitoneal fibrosis in December, and I am now on a medication which intends to take care of that.
Because of that, my immune system is compromised. The main med I get is Prednisone, which lowers your resistance AND tricks your body into thinking everything is OK.
The internist who is monitoring me (who knows a lot about infections) has explained to me what a Coronavirus infection would do to me, and as long as there is no known cure, the likelihood that it involves dying is definitely way over 50%.
He also explained to me how pandemics work. Trust me, it’s not a bedtime story.
A friend of mine is trying to make do with one half lung instead of two whole ones, like you and me. If he gets infected, his chances of kicking the bucket are way over 95%.
You, sir, seem to be confusing caution with fear.
If you would take the same chances in traffic, you’d lose your license in three… two… one…
Common sense, when applied without understanding, leads to flat earth theories. Informed common sense can take you a lot further.
Useless analogy.
Yes, we have, but we’ve also cured smallpox in the past, and found a way to beat cancer.
But more importantly, in the past, we have also severely underestimated the Spanish Flu, resulting in a death toll that may have been anything from 17 million to 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million.
You do not seem to understand how pandemics work. Your “lack of fear” might lead to a health worker to become infected. That same health worker may be the one who is applying the drip to get the contrast fluid for my CT scan. If that happens, we may be talking about a corpse soon.
Therefore, with great hesitation, but for the love of my life, I urge you to stay the fuck away from me – and from any hospital where I am under treatment.
So there.
Having given my (suitably informed) opinion on the matter as a stakeholder once, I think it’s wise to limit the opinionated discussions to Facebook, and try to remain neutral on the matter here.
Thank you for your post, @peterhuppertz
May I remind you that this is a friendly forum, and we are all free to express our opinions in a civil and respectful manner . . .
Please refrain from making such responses.
Cheers, Joe
@Jazzbass19 I fail to see what this thread has to do with a bass forum, I feel that it should never have been started, and if there are any negative feelings being shown by members it is the fault of the person who started the thread.
Keep the forum friendly, keep politics out of the forum.
Jamie
Indeed, we should probably all just STFU about masks from here on.
@Jamietashi, other members wanted to talk about wearing masks in the “post your covers” topic (which is under bass guitar Chat), so, as a Moderator, I split those posts off and moved them to this topic here in “The Lounge”.
The Lounge is a place where non-bass-guitar topics such as family, hobbies, grandchildren, problems, houses, injuries, automobiles, etc. etc. can be discussed in a safe and non-threatening environment.
Everyone is free to participate or not, but it is up to the individual members to express any negative feelings they may have in a courteous and respectful manner, as outlined in FAQ - BassBuzz Forum
I hope I have addressed your concerns . . .
Cheers, Joe
I’ve said all I have to say on the matter and will not say anything further.
@peterhuppertz I’m very sorry about your ailment and hope all turns out well for you.
I think you knew, or should have known, that this is a subject that is bound to cause controversy.
I also note that you consider my contribution controversial, but you seem to have no problem if someone equates me arguing in favour of exercising caution with burning witches at the stake.
I was unaware that you are a moderator. I suppose that makes your judgement official, so I will refrain from using this forum, and remove my account.