jfc this paper
"Profound similarities between highly nAChR affine toxins (i.e., from snakes of the Ophiophagus (cobra) [...], Rabies lyssavirus [...] strains [...] and Cobratoxin (naja siamensis) [...] and SARS-CoV-2 specific proteins were found by analyzing the toxin’s amino-acid (aa) sequence alignment and comparing it to the motifs in spike glycoprotein (SGP) from SARS-CoV-2."
https://bioelecmed.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s42234-023-00104-7
Paraphrased, that reads "At a molecular level, parts of the Covid19 virus look and seemingly behave a lot like cobra venom and rabies."
Turns out being "covid cautious" is just a revealed preference for not wanting strangers to sneeze rabies and snake venom analogues into your lungs.
Wear a mask.