It’s common to wear a mask in some crowded Oriental cities. And has been since before Covid. The risk of a viral infection is high in many crowded urban environments.
I had a friend with an auto immune deficiency disease. He has since passed, but he most certainly wore a mask in public.
Point is, the average person does not need to mask up. But there are always some rare exceptions.
Many people in “Oriental cities” wear masks not to protect them from infection as to filter out the particulates from uncontrolled vehicle exhaust emissions (lots of 2-cycle engines running around the cities, y’know). Filtering particulate emissions is something a mask can do. Filtering a “viral infection”? Not a chance.
Yes.
Sorry about your friend.