This is pretty wild.
I absolutely consider protection from disease to be a form of self-defense. As you say, one has a right to protect oneself from dangerous things.
I'm hearing some of the same folks who stand up for the 2nd Amendment as a form of self defense, ridiculing you for basically doing the same thing with a mask instead of a gun.
This kind of thing is why I'm here, engaging in political discussions. IMO we have so much partisanship these days that people aren't even thinking, they just go down the familiar ruts in the brain. We've become blinded even to some of the stuff that comes out of our own mouths.
I think we can do better. We (Americans) need to start lifting ourselves out of the partisan trenches. We see things, and there are conditioned "becauses" attached to it.
Like, "you support the 2nd Amendment 'because' you're a rightie", or "you trust the vax 'because' you're a leftie" or whatever.
Our first thought is "what camp does the idea belong to", instead of is it any good or what are the alternatives and etc.
Remember Howard Hughes? He was a germophobe, even without Covid. He wouldn't even shake hands with anyone. It was his form of self defense, against whatever perceived threat was out there - and as long as he wasn't hurting anyone, no one complained.