Why People Refuse to Wear Masks 😷 from a Security Perspective

Source: Phillip Iscove

First things first: WEAR A MASK 😷😷😷 Simply put, the transmission rate of COVID decreases when people wear masks and I’ve included a graphic representing this on the right. The point of wearing a mask is 1. to not get sick yourself and 2. to not transfer the virus to anyone else in case you’re asymptomatic. You could be a completely asymptomatic carrier and if you don’t wear a mask you could be spreading it to everyone in your community. It really comes down to compassion and whether or not you’re willing to experience a smidge of discomfort to protect your entire community.

Okay, on to the post! Recently I have seen so many people not wearing masks and/or not social distancing in public places - both online and IRL. It doesn’t make sense to me that people refuse to wear masks but I started thinking about this issue from a security standpoint instead.

Me and my sister @justacoderthing

In college, I took a security class where we discussed why people don’t care about strengthening the security of their devices and online accounts. My professor said the reason most people don’t install security software is because of the cost-benefit analysis - in particular that you can’t see 👀 the benefit of the software. She told us that if people install a security protection software 🔒 on their computers and the software blocks malware on a website - there isn’t going to be something that says “One malicious element blocked! Good for you for using this security software!”

Every time malware is blocked, you can’t physically see that the software blocked it. For most people, the cost of purchasing the security protection software & installing it isn’t worth the potential benefit of blocking loads of malware since they can’t see the benefits. 👀 Essentially, the cost of getting the protection software outweighs the potential benefits for most people.

In the same way, I think the reason people don’t wear masks is because they can’t physically see the benefit. Hypothetically, lets say that whenever someone with coronavirus breathes, the virus droplets show up on surfaces they breathed on as purple dots. Same for surfaces - if there was coronavirus on a table, there would be purple dots spattered on it. In this case, if everyone could physically see the virus and you saw purple dots in a grocery store you would obviously wear a mask in and social distance - right?

But the point is, it’s a virus and we can’t see it - so collectively what we have to do is wear a mask at all times in public places and maintain 6 ft distance to be safe.

In this case the “cost” of wearing a mask is that it’s slightly uncomfortable and the benefit is that you’re keeping yourself & others in your community safe. For some, I guess the slight cost of a mask being uncomfortable isn’t enough for the benefit of keeping an entire community safe. Every time you go to the grocery store and wear a mask, you don’t get a little notification that says “Good job! You’ve protected 10 elderly people in this store who are high-risk for covid!” I think because people can’t see the benefits of wearing a mask - they just don’t want to wear one.

Although I’m trying to understand the reasons behind it - I still have to say that not wearing a mask is irresponsible and we all just need to deal with a tiny bit of inconvenience to potentially save thousands of lives and stop the spread of the virus.

Comment below and let me know your thoughts on this because I would be very interested to hear them! Do you always wear a mask in public? 😷