There is nothing I believe in that I would willing put other people's lives at risk rather than admit I might be wrong. Wearing a face covering won't kill me, not wearing one might kill someone else. As H&S professionals we deal with this sort of situation all the time. We have to avoid letting our pride put other people at risk. We must do what the scientific consensus suggests, whether we agree with that scientific consensus or not.
For example, our learned colleague Chris Packham knows a lot more about hand hygiene than I do. I believed that alcohol gel was bad for hands, and soap and water was the best option. He gave evidence that I was wrong. He explained why I was wrong. He has much more knowledge on the subject, therefore I have changed my stance. My pride is not so great that I would put the skin of my workers at risk, rather than admit that an expert knows more than me.
The mistrust of experts is now endemic across the world. This pandemic has highlighted just how bad this has become. We can blame Trump for this, but to be honest Trump was the logical outcome of this paranoia. He got where he was because people no longer trusted experts and here pandered to that fear. A perfect example of this was during the ebola crisis "witch doctors" told their followers that the healthcare professionals were killing their loved ones in the hospitals. This resulted in the families rushing into the hospitals to rescue their families, causing the outbreak to spread again. The woo-peddlars were worried they would lose face and believers if the experts proved to be right. They risked the lives of their congregation rather than admit they could be wrong. I find it strange that climate change deniers can't see the power that the oil companies have, and instead point to a "green energy hoax".
For too long blame has been put at experts doors, when none was there to be had. We have a media that distorts facts depending on their agenda, to the point that James Murdoch quit his media empire due to the fact they were knowingly posting lies about climate change being a hoax. This has been excerbated by politians taking donations from groups that have a vested interest in keeping the status quo.
Now we have a situation where literally thousands of people are dying every day and people still don't believe there is a virus or that it is exagerated. Some people don't even believe in viruses themselves, arguing they are just the result of the body "detoxing".
There are conspiracies out there that will be true, but these are not the grand schemes that the "truthers" want us to believe. A conspiracy is only as good as those that can keep it a secret. The millions of people that would have to be in on the virus hoax precludes it from being true. Health care workers, virologists, victims, biologists, governments, etc would all have to be in on it. The ruling elite doesn't make sense when you see how bungled a response many countries have had. Do they ask governments to delibrately make their response look shambolic? For what end?
Strange that when the truthers get on a plane they trust that experts to get them safely to their destination.
Remember, as Carl Sagan said, all claims require evidence, extrodinary claims require extrodinary evidence