that attitude here now. But, correct me if I'm wrong, I understood that attitude stemmed more from folks feeling it was their duty to protect others by wearing a mask when they knew they were sick, not so much forcing others to do so based on sickness levels in the area, or a blanket mask wearing by the entire community.

I can definitely see it being beneficial if we see attitudes here turn to "well I'm sick with a cold, or whatever, so I'll wear this mask when out so as not to pass it on to others." rather than just pumping in ibuprofen or whatever OTC med and going about our merry way. Whether we can change societal attitudes to think that way, like was done for drunk driving, smoking in public, etc., is a different question.