I have so far gotten through The Pandemic without getting COVID. The main reason for that probably has to do with how much of the last few years I've spent not going anywhere. Apart from a few days in San Diego for last year's Comic-Con, I haven't traveled far…and when I've left the house and been around others, I've usually been masked. Some combination of those two things and prompt doses of Moderna have done the trick…I guess. But we'll never know for sure.
We may also never know for sure how necessary or effective all that masking has been. Liz Highleyman reviews a lot of the studies on this matter and comes to the conclusion that you can't come to a conclusion. The surveys are all over the place and this looks like one of those questions where the one most folks will believe is definitive and matter-settling is whichever one gives them the answer they want to believe. One friend of mine who masked but hated it is way too quick to believe this is settled law.
I masked because my doctor told me to mask. As I think I've written here more than once, I don't think my doctor is infallible; just that on matters of medicine, he's way less fallible than I am. Actually, 100% of my doctors — and I have, I think, seen twelve of them since this thing started — are still all pro-masking. A few months ago when I went to a big medical building for an MRI, there was a sign on one wall that just said, "There's a reason doctors wear them around sick people or in surgery."
I'm wearing them less often now but I ain't throwing mine away. I'll probably mask up at WonderCon whenever I'm not on a stage or dining. If anyone tries to tell me that's over, I'll tell them I'm cosplaying as a time traveler from March of 2020. What I probably won't do is ever assume the question of whether masking has lessened COVID or just been a waste of paper and elastic has been settled beyond a shadow of a doubt.