For now, it seems like enough folks (at least in Massachusetts) have bought into the idea that wearing a mask is a sign of public health and compassion toward others.

But regardless of what value you put on wearing a mask (such as “I’m doing this to flatten the curve and help out hospital workers”), when I am wearing a mask, I am othering the folks that walk by me:

I am safe. I don’t know if you’re safe, so I assume that you’re not.

Schrodinger’s Effect.

This process, especially when played out over a long time, has devastating relational consequences. These relational consequences are actually the result of complex physiological processes that impact how we engage with other people.