Firstly, replace mask with any other piece of clothing. Should the government be able to force you to wear a hat at all times? It protects from skin cancer, after all, and so we're saving lives. But what if you don't want to wear a hat? Shouldn't you have the freedom to choose to take that risk? It's your body. What if it was a burka? Should the state be able to force you to wear a burka? It's not that different once the precedent is set.  Secondly, it is about medical liberty. The mask is a medical device and, with the precedent set that the government can compel you to use a medical device, you have lost your medical liberty. There is now nothing stopping the state from mandating any other medical intervention. You and only you get to decide what goes in your body, or potentially what is taken out of your body. What if someone needs a kidney and the precedent is now set that you have no medical liberty if forcibly removing your kidney could save a life? Thirdly, it is about the justification that "it's for safety." It is not the government's job to protect your safety. The world is extremely dangerous and if you start allowing state control for "safety," they could ban anything. They could ban cars because people die in cars. They could restrict how houses are built, how much time you spend outside, where you are allowed to holiday, what kind of recreation you're allowed to do. You can die doing literally anything so you could therefore make a justification for banning literally anything "to save lives." All you need is the wrong person in power to exploit this. It's not about the mask itself. It's about the precedent. Yes, the mask is a very minor thing and it might even help, but in the future it will be something much more serious. The end to free speech starts by banning "racism" and ends with whatever Reddit is now. We are trying to make the point that sacrificing liberty now could have horrible consequences later. People who say "just wear the mask" will have no leg to stand on when they later try to argue why we shouldn't all have to wear burkas or surrender to mandatory blood extraction. You must limit the government's access to power and to violate your rights because they will violate wherever they can.