At the hospital I worked at there were no transmissions of COVID from known infected patients to providers wearing N95 masks (at least in the first 2 years, I didn’t keep up with it after that). So if you are wearing N95s you should feel quite confident that you are protecting yourselves without requiring behavior modifications from anyone else.
It’s always reassuring to hear more evidence, anecdotal or otherwise, that the N95s work. There’s definitely still at least some risk though, my roommate is currently recovering from Covid themselves despite not going out often and always masking when they do. I believe it’s the only time they’ve been infected, so the masks have made a difference for sure, but still. We’ve thankfully been able to isolate and avoid giving it to each other at least.
Our behavior is still pretty limited by others behavior though, too. For instance, I can’t go drinking or out to eat with friends because I won’t take my mask off. At work it can be very difficult for me to even eat lunch safely because of this. Swimming is another thing, or concerts, I used to like going to punk and metal shows, but with how rowdy they are and how much close contact and heavy breathing there is, it’s just far too risky even with my mask on. Lots of things like these add up. I also feel it’s really unfair to those who are unable to mask, like for instance there’s a lot of homeless people in my city who definitely cannot remain masked all the time or even close, shouldn’t we be taking precautions to protect them, or people like them who can’t protect themselves?
