This did not start, however, with COVID-19. The wave of self-righteous anti-smoking sentiment going back to the 1970s and 1980s taught petty tyrants at all levels from the mayors of small towns to the upper reaches of the federal government what a useful cudgel they had with the public health/greater good hammer, especially when they could blend some actual information with inflammatory rhetoric and cultivate/manipulate public sentiment.
Smokers have subsequently been relegated to second class citizen status, and soon, non-maskers will feel the same kind of heat. The playbook used for, "second-hand smoke," has once again been cracked open to control, "second-hand breath."
Frankly, a lot of us saw this coming when commercial property owners were directed by government that they could no longer decide for themselves whether or not they could sanction a legal activity on their property.
Anybody who self-righteously supported wholesale public smoking bans really has no right to bitch about being compelled to wear a mask - it's a barn door they helped open.