Yserbius123,
“A single person being uncomfortable is a small price to pay to potentially protect others from a dangerous virus.”
DaasYochid didn’t say uncomfortable. He said hatzolah almost was called on Yom Kippur. That’s a bit more than uncomfortable. Your arguments lose potency when you distort information you are given to suit your points rather than dealing with it head on.
“Can we acknowledge that this is a conversation about wearing masks to protect others? A mask only offers a small protection from getting a virus. But it offers a huge protection to other people if the mask wearer would Chas v’Shalom be infected.”
No, I don’t acknowledge this. The level of protection given by a mask for the wearer or others around the wearer is largely unknown, especially in non-clinical settings. These issues are complex, and your attempts to oversimplify them hurts trust in your larger arguments.