Wait, are you saying Europeans are surprised talking about it is still a thing, because everyone wears them? Or because nobody wears them?
Just got back from Germany yesterday, and while masks are required on most public transport (but not airplanes), you'll see a decent amount of compliance (50%?) but not anywhere else indoors.
Minimal masking in public spaces on public transport, stores, airplanes, etc in my experience in Germany/France/UK. There's absolutely more masking going on here in the Bay Area.
Unfortunately I'm quite sure it's the latter. Even in Canada, in MTL where I live, on public transit it's maybe 5-6% that is masking. For most people the pandemic is simply "over", regardless of what the data says or how overwhelmed hospitals are.
To be clear, hospitals being "overwhelmed", i.e. their capacity, is a function related to personnel. When our state (WA) fired thousands of healthcare workers for not getting an experimental vaccine that few of them needed (natural immunity is a thing, as much as Big Pharma would like to suppress it), our capacity decreased because we lost nurses. It doesn't necessarily mean that _no beds are available_.
Small outlier countries like Germany, where I still see masks regularly in various settings, and where FFP2 masks are either still mandatory in public transport or just stopped being mandatory a few days ago. Also mandatory in doctor's offices, hospitals.
When I was in Germany at the end of this September, there were certainly plenty of signs saying masks were mandatory on public transport. Compliance with said signs, however, was well south of 50%.
And that's shockingly high for Massachusetts where it's probably less than 1% in general--outside of healthcare settings and probably a few percent higher on public transit.
yes and, you see "social signal" surgical masks and also clinical N-95 variations.. personally I do wear the N-95 at the grocery store at this time. I throw them out after a few weeks of use and use a new one. A box of ten is about $15 at a local hardware store near me.
Just got back from Germany yesterday, and while masks are required on most public transport (but not airplanes), you'll see a decent amount of compliance (50%?) but not anywhere else indoors.
Minimal masking in public spaces on public transport, stores, airplanes, etc in my experience in Germany/France/UK. There's absolutely more masking going on here in the Bay Area.