As a Florida resident, being in an area with an excessive amount of coronavirus cases means that residents of those areas must take precautions in order to slow the spread of a deadly, harmful virus that’s taking our world by storm. The CDC recommends all people to only do two things: wear a mask and social distance; however, some people fail to do even that.

Many people who refuse this new essential clothing item cite having asthma or difficulty to breathe in a mask, especially because of the constriction around the nose and mouth.

Others claim that it’s an infringement of their rights; however, it is well within the rights of others to leave the house for groceries and not come back with a highly contagious virus.

Speaking from personal experience, I’ve worn my mask for hours on end with little to no issues. As a person with claustrophobia, I expected the mask to give me difficulty breathing; that’s not to say that difficulty breathing hasn’t come, but I refuse to remove the mask, especially in areas of high traffic where I can infect or kill someone should I have the virus.

Wearing a mask isn’t for your own safety; it’s for the safety of others. Infecting someone at high risk because of the disregard for human lives can well be avoided so long as masks are worn. It’s as simple as this: masks save lives.

Many people claim to want to be heroes, but when presented with the opportunity to save lives by wearing a mask, suddenly all desires for heroism are thrown out of the window. If they can’t wear a mask, they should stay home. People’s lives are more important.

My opinion on wearing masks for the coronavirus is complicated.

For the most part I do not think they are effective. Since the mask is not going to completely stop the virus from getting into your system, you will still get the virus if you come into contact with it.

I do not care if people wear the mask or not, but I think it should be their choice to do or not to do so. I am still going to do what I need to to protect myself, but if other do not want to protect themselves, I am ok with it.

I think mask mandates would be a very bad thing in general. It may help stop COVID-19  cases, but it could lead to bad things happening. It sucks that everything has to be political, but that is direction I am heading. I think that if the government starts to apply mask mandates, this small thing could snowball. If the government finds out people are fine with mandates happening, what is to stop them from mandating more things?

I think that if wearing masks really does lessen the spread, I think it is a good thing to wear them, but it should not be mandated. I am perfectly fine wearing a mask, and that is my choice.

I also think that it is good that privately owned businesses and organizations have mandatory mask rules for when you enter their establishment. I think it is okay for them to do that because it is their property. This is also a good way to get people to wear masks because it does not involve the government and does a better job at doing it than they could. If someone wants to go to the store but they cannot enter unless they have a mask; they cannot get what they want, which will force them to put the mask on.

I am alright with wearing a mask but I think it should be the people’s choice and should not be mandated.