Dear editor:

Something I don’t hear much discussed in the Great Mask Debate is the most important reason, I think, for wearing masks in stores: to protect the people who have to work there to make a meagre living.

The research is now clear. The most dangerous environment is indoors with strangers, and store workers are forced to spend their days in just such a place.

Therefore, while I am the first to say I hate masks: they fog my glasses, irritate my skin and often send my hearing aids flying off when I remove the mask — and let me tell you those little critters are mighty expensive.

I also have asthma, so breathing in the mask is particularly uncomfortable.

And it so saddens me to not see other’s smiles and to have to hide mine.

But early in the pandemic I stitched myself some face coverings and have worn them faithfully when in stores. It seems a small sacrifice to protect the folks who have to work there.

And hey, it protects me too! Bonus.

Kathy Belicki

NOTL