I don't wear a mask. Not even in the stores here locally that say the county commissioners require masks. What do they know? They are elected lay people, not medical experts.
Most of this is mass hysteria and fear-mongering. At age 72, I've lived through more than a few pandemics. Never before, in my lifetime, has the economy been shut down to keep people from dying. You're lucky is you even heard about them in the news. People died. Life went on. This time around it's all politically-driven. Presidential election year and finding a reason to blame Trump for something else he didn't do.
You may be right in saying that continual mask wearing cause people to get sick from rebreathing the germs and bacteria in the environment. The only thing mask wearing protects you from is the guilt you have from the politicians telling you what to do.
Wearing the muzzles keeps the busybodies happy, so I guess one could say I’m protecting ‘others’ simply by keeping the jerks out of my face.