Info Value of Masks and other factors to lower Covid-19 Risk while Traveling

[Centrals]

I am in Italy. I started using an high quality 3M respirator (the model with active carbon filter) when I was a student and I had to travel frequently by train between Parma and Bologna (1h), in the eighties.
At the time it was still allowed to smoke on trains, and many people started to use respirators (although mostly the simple ones, not those with active carbon filters as my ones).
This disappeared 10 years later, when smoking was finally forbidden almost everywhere.
But I often travel for work in far east (Japan, Korea) and there masks have always been used on public transportation or in crowded places, also outdoors.
In Seoul, for example, they use respirators outdoors, for protection against air pollution (microdust) travelling there from China.
Wearing a mask in these countries is a sign of taking care for themself and for others. Not wearing it is considered a sign of arrogance or of ignorance.
Koreans are very kind, I was often offered a mask when I did not wear one. And refusing it is not nice for them.
All this pre-Covid...

I have been to Korea couple of times yrs ago but cannot recall ever seeing mask/respirators being used on public transport. Korean are indeed incredibly polite.
I also had a brief stop over in Seoul(48hrs) few years ago and again not a sign of mask being used on the public transport.

 

[Boarderguy]

I had similar experience when I was in Korea for a few weeks in 2008, 7 months in Japan in 2008 and another 7 months 2009/2010. Some wore masks and it was expected that you wear one if ill. The trains were packed and busses just the same. This is from south in Iwakuni up through Tokyo.

 

[Centrals]

Travelled around Korea for about 3 wks in 1988 or 89. And then a skiing trip(Dragon Velley) few yrs later.
SARS(2002) had talked some of use to wear mask when not well especially with cold symptoms and temperature.

I believe wearing a mask on public transport could be a common sight in many places and has nothing to do with illness.