To mask or not to mask, that is the question

Recently our community restrictions have been eased and we are able to gather in public again... which is very welcome considering that it has been a month of not being able to gather or if you did so only in small groups in controlled environments such as on the rooftop of your own building.

Lately, all restaurants including restaurants that everyone knows is really a bar that serves a few nibbles of food have been allowed to open... many of these "restaurants" don't even serve food but I suspect that they have connections with the police in order to get away with this.

I don't really understand how it makes a difference if you serve food or not, there are massive drinking areas that have food that no one orders that are packed every night - well, at least for now while everyone is super-enthusiastic about being able to go places again.

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Personally, I hate the whole mask thing and tend to believe the "science" where it has been shown that unless a very specific type of mask is worn in just the right way, that masking doesn't really benefit you a great deal anyway. I think that when you point to communities where "the science" indicates that masks are working is purely anecdotal coincidence rather than a direct result of people wearing masks. Yet we find ourselves here in Da Nang, Vietnam at a position where half of the people are masking, and half of the people are not. I find the wearing of a mask while swimming in the ocean to be a silly one, but each and every day that I go down there I see people jumping around in the water and even submerging themselves in the water all while donning a mask.

The government hasn't said a great deal about whether or not masks are required but for me I still wear one under my chin just so I can pull it up over my face if I encounter a bunch of people heading towards me on the sidewalk that are wearing theirs. For the most part I would prefer to not have one on at all because I don't think it accomplishes anything and since everyone immediately removes their masks as soon as they arrive at busy restaurants it kind of makes me think that even if the masks did do something, not wearing them inside the most crowded place you are going to be in that day seems kind of counterproductive.

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I mean let's say that you wore your mask walking from your car to this place a distance of let's say 100 meters or so. During that time you are going to encounter what, 5 people? Then as soon as you get inside here everyone takes their masks off and sits in very close proximity to one another. In some places I have been the staff wear masks, but they themselves are unsure whether or not they are required to. Other places don't bother with them at all. I'm more inclined to visit the second group of places.

I guess I just don't understand the whole "mask debate" and up until now we have been able to avoid this being politicized in Vietnam - probably because politics are completely different in a communist country - either you are part of the party in power or you don't get to have any political power.

For now, I will wear my mask when I am required to because I don't want to end up on the bad end of a facebook post done by some nationalist that wants to blame foreigners for the fact that Covid doesn't go away. I will, however, only wear it when it seems polite or is required. For now, it seems as though whether or not you wear a mask is totally up to the individual and honestly, I feel that is the way it always should have been.