Several countries have laws that bans covering your face in public, including some states in the USA.
the US for one - many states have laws dating from KKK activity on this
Seems to be iffy and not really enforced in any modern application as far as I know. You see folks constantly wearing full face masks even before C-19 during the winter.
That is what I'm asking. In France, can you participate in a political demonstration wearing a surgical mask, when before the pandemic it would probably gotten you arrested? In Sweden, can you wear surgical mask at public demonstrations where public order is or may be disturbed, when it before the pandemic would have been illegal? Etc.
Does public health take precedence over existing legislation currently?
Of course it does, as any judge ruling on these sorts of ordeals now that the empirics over public safety make the enforcement of public mask wearing largely make the judge seem absurd if they were to rule against mask wearing.
Also you have issues on what actually constitutes a mask. Even if this got to be enforced for some insane reason, I imagine masks would be manufactured in dimensions where there would be question begging against Sorites Paradox.
In reality, most laws' enforement tendencies shift heavily with context (fulfilling the true purpose of a courtroom in my view, otherwise we wouldn't need courts, and simply have AI make binary decisions like ("Wore Mask for any reason?" "Jail Sentence" -- NEXT).
When C-19 fades though, France will most certainly get back to it's famous idiotic ruling. Especially since it has backing within the European Commissio on Human Rights. If your ruling has backing from them, and you're a part of the EU -- you could basically rest easy re-instituting gas chambers as execution methods if you so pleased.