Mask use has gone from nearly 0% to nearly 100% for those who have to go out and share airspace with others. Mask use has been normalised in China but was seen as weird or paranoid in the West, perhaps. Even President Trump said that he would not be wearing a mask, probably ensuring his avid cult followers continue to be potential killers as they shout and rant about their stupid beliefs in their ‘dear leader’ Dictator Trump.
In fact, a mask may not just protect you from inhaling the vapour emitted when another person talks, but, more effectively, it prevents your own vapours from pouring out, floating in the air for a few seconds and being inhaled by another. The science is in, masks that cover the mouth and nose are important to prevent the virus from getting out. Masks may rescue the economy from collapse as people will be able to go out sooner with a little less danger, however, isolation is the only way presently to prevent the complete devastating overwhelm of the health system from those who get very sick from Coronavirus infection.
Perhaps it is no accident that infection rates in the self-conscious mask-shy West have greatly exceeded that in the East, where there is a social priority to ‘save face’, and indeed, in the Muslim world where half the population has a filter between themselves and the world. The beauty industry, by creating face paints instead of decorative health coverings, has emphasized a need to display: the lips, the eyes, the cheekbones. The fashion industry can now come to the rescue by producing face filters that look good, that people want to wear and make them available.
Why risk infecting others when it can be so easily prevented?