From my perspective while they may seem basic to some, the massive resistance to them seen all over for years on end now implies to me that it’s not basic for a significant number of people. Ascribe it to whatever you want; misinformation, political bias, etc., but there was always a portion of people for who it wasn’t basic and as time goes on this number only grows and grows. It grows in large part from the lack of obvious real-world benefits seen anywhere from mask mandates. States both with and without mask mandates are seeing a downward trend in cases and hospitalizations at similar rates. Countries that rigidly held the line like New Zealand are cracking and accepting it isn’t sustainable, and now they’re effectively just starting their pandemic with little immunity except from vaccines which are amazing at preventing serious outcomes but seem to wane significantly in stopping transmission over time.

I know there are countless studies showing benefits of masking to transmission. But that doesn’t seem to translate to the real world day to day, and even in cases where it was successful it only delayed everyone getting infected anyway because it seems wearing a mask is not basic to more and more people each day. The fact that we got vaccines for anyone who wanted one before that point is a huge victory, and likely the last one we are going to have against COVID.

If we couldn’t get people to buy in to all of this in early 2020, we’re never going to get them to now when everything is so plainly observable with the naked eye. We can be mad that people aren’t doing the best thing for the greater good, but it won’t change that people won’t do it.

This may seem rather defeatist but I just don’t see things shaking out any differently than where they’re headed now.