You’ve been wearing your mask all day. It’s hot and itchy and you can feel a zit coming on. It’s an uncomfortable and sometimes annoying feeling that everyone has felt in the past year.

But wearing masks all the time is a small price to pay for the health of yourself and others. And that’s why we should keep wearing them even after all the mandates are lifted.

It might seem insignificant now, but once the pandemic has ended, flu season will once again be a terrifying time of year when everyone is sneezing and coughing. It feels like there’s no way to evade sickness.

Except there is a way — masks. We’re used to wearing them now. We all own them. So why not keep putting them to good use?

If we continue wearing masks when we’re sick or when there’s a stomach bug going around at school or work, we’ll all be healthier.

Before COVID, I never saw people wearing masks in public. But looking back, everyone should have been. In the 2018-2019 flu season, 34,200 people died from the flu in America, according to the CDC.

We could easily decrease this number in the future by wearing masks. I’m not suggesting it be mandated. I’m just suggesting we all use our common sense.

There are many countries where mask-wearing was common long before COVID came along.

Let’s take China for example. China has a flu season just like us, according to the CDC. They also have a much larger population than the U.S.— one billion compared to our 330 million.

Yet according to Statista, China had only 400-500 flu-related deaths in 2018-2019, compared to our 34,200.

I’m not saying this is solely due to masks. There could be other factors. But the numbers don’t lie. They’re proof that we should be taking everyday health and prevention seriously.

Wearing a mask doesn’t hurt anyone. It only helps. There are no bad side effects of wearing one while you’re sick. So show that you care for the people around you and put one on.