SAINT-GERMAIN-EN-LAYE, France (AP) – House keys, wallet or purse, mobile phone and … oh yes: mask.
Reluctantly for many, but also inexorably facing a deadly invisible enemy, tiny rectangles of fragile but life-saving fabric have joined the list of items in just a few months so as not to leave home without them for billions of dollars around the world..
Ever since humans invented shoes or underwear, a single article of clothing spread so quickly and quickly from Melbourne to Mexico City, Beijing to Bordeaux, spanning borders, cultures, generations and sexes with almost the same speed as the coronavirus that has shaken the Earth. it killed more than 600,000 and infected more than 15 million.
“Perhaps, there has never been such a rapid and dramatic change in global human behavior,” says Jeremy Howard, co-founder of # Masks4All, a pro-mask lobby group. “Humanity should be patting itself on the back.”
But rarely, and perhaps never, did something else used by humans provoke such furious discord and politics, especially in the United States.. Has anyone on an American beach ever targeted someone for wearing a bikini, like an unmasked man did in a masked shopper? this month at a Florida Walmart?
As such, like other human habits, the mask has become a mirror of humanity. That so many people, with varying degrees of zeal, have adapted to the discomfort of masking their airways and facial expressions. It is a powerful medicine because of the belief that people are fundamentally attentive, capable of sacrificing themselves for the common good.
From Marsha Dita, a freelance social media professional in Jakarta, Indonesia, a succinct and increasingly widely shared vision is presented: “This is not the time to be selfish.”
However, it is also evident from the outbreaks of fierce resistance to masks, especially in democracies, that is: many people do not like to be told what to do and are suspicious of the scientific evidence that hides contamination.
The cries that mask freedom have been vociferous in demonstrations in the United States, Canada and, last Sunday, in London. There, a speaker at a protest against the introduction this Friday of the mandatory use of masks in British stores He argued: “People die every year. This is nothing new “.
Skepticism shared by, among others, Mohammed al-Burji, a 42-year-old official in Lebanon. Walking to work without a mask, violating loose rules that are used everywhere outside the home, he said: “There is no coronavirus, brother. They are just fooling people. “
The country has reported more than 3,100 infections and 43 deaths, and senior officials have made public appeals for people to adhere to mask use and social distancing.
The same human reflexes that make people evaluate fashion options, haircuts, and the like at the first meeting now instinctively apply to masks as well.
In Mexico City, Estima Mendoza says that she cannot avoid backing down from people without masks. “I feel helpless. On the one hand I judge them and on the other I ask myself “Why?” Mendoza said. “As human beings, we always judge.”
As a black Muslim woman in France, Maria Dabo knows that she feels great. For her, the adoption of masks has had an unexpected but welcome side effect: She no longer feels so prominent in the country that she has legislated to prevent Muslim women from wearing veils to cover their faces. With the necessary masks in all interior public spaces, the long-obsession of the French extreme right with Islamic veils has been silenced.
“I feel like we’re a little bit better understood,” Dabo said. “Everyone is forced to do the same as us, which makes me believe that God is busy teaching people a lesson, that the cover-up is not religious or anything else. It’s about not being silly and protecting yourself. “
In addition, the global debate has clouded and fueled mixed messages from government leaders who turned to the usefulness of the masks and discouraged their public use when stocks were so scarce that health workers cared for the sick and dying without adequate protection.
Chief among the U-turns is the President of the United States, Donald Trump, who first wore a mask in public only after COVID-19 had killed at least 134,000 Americans and tweeted this week that wearing masks is a patriotic act.
Months of resistance it preceded that tweet, scratch-resistant resistance in autocratic China, which has canceled the debate on how the pandemic started and how it was managed there.
“People in other countries ask for freedom. But they are actually losing it, because they have seen a rapid increase in infection cases, “said Liu Yanhua, an insurance worker.
Even within homes, the masks are divided. Yu Jungyul, a child health worker in Seoul, South Korea, says she has to tease her husband into wearing one, saying, “‘We have to wear masks for other people now, rather than just for us. ‘”.
In Australia, this week’s introduction of mandatory facial covers in Melbourne came with a plea from the region’s prime minister, Daniel Andrews, for masks to be incorporated into life’s routines.
“Most of us would not leave the house without our keys, we would not leave the house without our mobile phone. You will not be able to leave the house without your mask, ”he said.
Trend makers also set the tone. Fashion historian Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, author of “Worn On This Day: The Clothes That Made History,” notes that “fashion spread through emulation” and can run the world in minutes on social media. social. She suggests that “seeing more prominent people, such as actors, models, social media or political personalities, using them on television or on social media would have a huge impact.”
“The decision to wear a mask, or NOT to wear one, also gives people the illusion of control at a time when everything seems to be wildly out of control,” he argues.
Then there are the practicalities. Masks are an unaffordable luxury for people in extreme poverty and are making painful dent in the budgets of modest families. Wasim Abbas, a villager from Pakistan, says: “Some people are poor. They have not been given masks. “
In heat, masks can be a torment. In Lagos, Nigeria, street merchant without a mask Jibola Costello said he had to take off his clothes to rest. “So that’s why I took it off.”
And in France, fruit and vegetable seller Montassar Yoinis noted that shoppers avoid his stall if his face is uncovered. He then makes up for it by screaming out loud through his surgical mask: “Hello sir, feel free to try the cherries!”
“It’s kind of annoying, but we don’t have a choice,” he said. “People are suspicious when you don’t wear a mask. They do not come “.
Shopping with her young children (she was masked, they weren’t), the French museum worker Celine Brunet-Moret said she misses not being able to see faces and “all the emotions people have.” You don’t see people smiling or if they’re okay or not. “
“It is not the same life and it is not the normal life, so I am thinking that we will never get used to it, we will really get used to it,” he said.
But across the street from the store where Brunet-Moret was buying hot cheese, fabric store worker Laure Estiez said venturing out without one of her growing collection of about 30 homemade masks now feels “almost unnatural.” . She says her new morning routine of choosing colors and patterns to match her mood and outfits has “become a pleasure.”
“We have great adaptability,” he said. “You get used to everything.”
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AP journalists from around the world contributed to this report. Follow AP coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
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