# When you see a person out in public wearing a paper breathing mask, what do you think?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-see-a-person-out-in-public-wearing-a-paper-breathing-mask-what-do-you-think/740318>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [December 13, 2015, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-see-a-person-out-in-public-wearing-a-paper-breathing-mask-what-do-you-think/740318 "2015-12-13T13:01:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![BigBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@BigBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigBlue)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-see-a-person-out-in-public-wearing-a-paper-breathing-mask-what-do-you-think/740318/41 "2015-12-15T04:56:07Z")

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I would think they are a weirdo.

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**Author:** ![russian\_heel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f05b48/32.png) [@russian\_heel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/russian_heel)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-see-a-person-out-in-public-wearing-a-paper-breathing-mask-what-do-you-think/740318/42 "2015-12-15T07:09:32Z")

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Only time I ever saw this was at a trade show in Texas about 15-16 years ago when there was a huge flu epidemic, and a few Asians visited our booth wearing the masks. Its not something Id do, but the flu was so bad that year I couldn’t blame or laugh at them.

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**Author:** ![AbbySthrnAccent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@AbbySthrnAccent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AbbySthrnAccent)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-see-a-person-out-in-public-wearing-a-paper-breathing-mask-what-do-you-think/740318/43 "2015-12-15T09:16:20Z")

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As parent of a former pediatric leukemia patient, I would presume it is to protect the fragile immune system of the person wearing the mask.

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