No need to beg in order to differ! I think the addiction model explains a lot; and part of that syndrome is an addiction to the fear (that is, to the fear porn); followed the adoption of the mask talisman as a signal to yourself and others that dammit, in the face of all these threats you, at least, are taking action and doing your part. A placebo. If people were really so terrified of catching a fatal illness outdoors in the sunshine although all others around them, maskless, somehow do not, I think they would not emerge at all (though I admit that introduces the irrelevancy of a rational approach to the situation).