Perhaps masks are the 21st century version of the early 20th century version of a hat and gloves. Until JFK became President, men wore hats and women wore gloves. I remember starting a summer job at NY Tel in 1964 and the requirement for the women employees to wear gloves to work had just been abandoned as well as men wearing hats.
Thus the social imperative of demonstrating social compliance via social presentation has changed but it remains the same. Whether the tricolor or gloves and a hat, we now have masks. The mask was common in Asia and now has become de rigueur in the US. Is the mask effective, frankly who really knows. The issue is infecting others and preventing one's own infection, welcome to aerosol theory.
We will not really know perhaps for another fifty years. Just look at the plague in 1348. Strange head gear and smoke.
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