Guess the whole “roll around in viral soup and lick the elevator buttons” crowd arguing getting sick is healthy as it boosts your immune system is going to have a relatively sad old age.<p>I noticed that plants I grow in a sterile environment are extraordinarily healthy and vigorous vs those in a similar but unsterile environment. I always drew from that the less a life form has to struggle against it’s environment the more energy it can apply to growth and the more “optimal” the growth will be.<p>Add in the DNA level damage a virus can cause (not all viral infections of a cell destroys the cell or successfully encodes fully), and other forms of oh gosh that’s not good, tells me it’s just got a great idea to be infected.<p>So, forgive me, but I plan to wear masks on planes (precovid I got sick on literally every flight over 4 hours - no more!) and during outbreaks of influenza and other nasties. I can train my immune system with vaccines, which don’t actively infect my cells systemically. And the pictures of my thriving plants will be playing in my head the next time some conservative yells at me about natural immunity for wearing a mask.