Funny you should mention that. Face masks have been much less prominent in the prevention of Covid here in Norway than on the other side of the Atlantic. It was many months into the pandemic before our health authorities started issuing face mask recommendations, and even then it was with significant caveats: This last November, they concluded that general face mask usage was not to be recommended unless the situation was severe or drastically increasing in severity, and that even if the situation was severe or drastically increasing in severity, it should only be recommended for specific situations where maintaining distance is impossible, and only where other measures have been tried first, and always with a very firm insistence that masks never replace other measures, but sometimes may supplement them — if worn properly. I've followed my country's recommendations to the letter, and that has meant that the number of times I have worn a face mask can be counted on one hand.

The result of this approach? Very few countries in Europe did better than us — Norway has had lower excess mortality throughout the pandemic.