"though it may rankle some in this community by stating that masks can be effective at limiting viral spread"

This is my great fear -- the ultimate compromise will be that, yes, covid has now become a "normal" respiratory virus, no big deal, but masking is forever . . . after all, why should we not try to limit all respiratory viral spread using such a simple measure as a mask which no reasonable person can object to.

Please tell me convincingly that I am wrong (and my situation might be different than that of many others, since I live in the EU).