We live in an increasingly polarized world. This polarization is resulting in increased politicization of societal issues. COVID 19 was disastrous in terms of loss of human lives. But even the pandemic resulted in a fault line that saw the world polarized along aspects of adherence to social distancing rules, vaccination and indeed mask wearing. All these were not just socially divisive but quickly got politicized exacerbating the social divides.
COVID 19 still lives with us and infact just last week someone who works with me was hospitalized due to COVID. But thankfully the worst is well behind us. Probably the most visible legacy impact of
COVID 19 is the “work from home” phenomenon. Another
legacy impact, and one that fascinates me, is the issue of mask wearing.
At the height of the pandemic, mask wearing was
mandatory in many countries. This led to a phenomenal growth in the mask
market. As you would expect, the market for masks peaked in 2020 and is
projected to decline into 2024 but still be three times the market pre-pandemic.
|
Source
: Statista via Twitter |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
|
US $ B |
1.4 |
224.1 |
128 |
36.5 |
5.8 |
4.2 |
In my home country of Singapore, at the height of the pandemic, mask wearing was mandatory in all outdoor settings except if one was doing physical exercise. Most of the mask wearing mandates have now been withdrawn in Singapore. In fact as of 31st of May cabin crew on Singapore Airlines are no longer mandated to wear masks. Yet, a large number of people continue to wear a mask in Singapore.
As I travelled around countries over the
last year, I observed differing levels of mask usage. A high proportion of
people seem to use masks in Thailand, a few but not insignificant
number in the UK, the US and Indonesia and practically no one in Spain, Italy
and India. There isn’t any obvious cultural bifurcation that would explain this
variance.
Decades of training as a market researcher lead
me to ask a few people in each country why they wear masks and why they
don’t. Using my, arguably “unsophisticated”, research I uncovered 3 broad reasons
why people wear masks even when there is no mandate to do so – prevention,
protection and vanity.
1. Prevention – I am not a scientist, but my
understanding is that a mask is most effective when the healthy person and the
COVID carrier both are wearing a mask. However, even the act of one of the
parties wearing a mask reduces transmission.
Source
: https://www.nebraskamed.com/COVID/coronavirus-is-not-canceled-wear-your-mask
In a world where COVID is now endemic there are two aspects to prevention –
a. Sign of politeness – In many Asian countries, it is
considered impolite to pass on infections. Hence, the unwell are expected to
wear a mask thereby reducing the risk of passing on the infection. This became
ingrained in South East Asia and North Asia after the outbreak of SARS in the
early 2000’s.
In Singapore today, if anyone is unwell the expectation is that they would wear a mask and failure to do so is met with societal disapproval. I was recently at the AGM of my condominium in Singapore and 10% of the participants had a mask on. The reason for most of them was they had a runny nose. They had all tested and were COVID negative but they believed the right thing to do was for them to wear a mask.
b. Prevent other diseases – I did a passive observation research (yes I am a market researcher after all) on the mask wearing habits of all taxis I have taken over the last two months in Singapore. An overwhelming 70% used a mask. When I ask why the most frequent answer is “coronavirus is not the only virus lah”. Come to think of it, the answer is quite cogent. Taxi drivers work in a closed environment and are exposed to viruses from all their passengers. Wearing a mask protects the taxi drivers from not just the coronavirus but also other viruses.
In Singapore, now the last mask wearing mandate requires us to wear a mask in medical settings like hospitals. I suspect it works to the same principle of preventing spread of viruses especially in an area where you have people with high virus loads and lower immunity.
2. Protection –
Apart from protection from viruses, the mask also helps to protect against the elements in two ways
a. Shield against pollution – People in Bangkok complain about facing
poor air quality which has only deteriorated in recent times. The poor air
quality affects the quality of life and makes breathing difficult. So, people
in Thailand say they use a face mask as a protection from poor air quality.
When smog descended on New York in June (2023), people who had never worn a mask during the pandemic decided to wear one to protect themselves from the poor air quality.
(Source : https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/07/new-york-city-wildfire-smoke-air-quality-mask)
b. Face shield against cold weather – Coming from the tropics I always “freeze” when I visit London in the winters. I personally wear a mask in London to prevent the cold breeze from impacting my face. Guess what, turns out that a lot of Asians living in London do exactly the same thing.
3. Vanity – A few years ago, the popular K pop band BIG
BANG took a selfie with masks setting off a trend of Koreans wearing masks as a
face accessory. But outside Korea, the mask did not enter the fashion ensemble with celebrities continuing to use shades to cover parts of their face but not a
mask. The unfashionable mask does have two other "vanity" uses
a. Hide blemishes – Some people use a mask to hide blemishes like pimple, acne etc. During a dinner time conversation last week, I found out that my teenage sons plan to use masks to hide pimples and it's a done thing amongst their friends.
b. Hide facial expressions – A mask helps to hide full facial expressions. This is a useful
feature being tapped into to deal with tricky face to face situations.
To mask or not to mask was a question answered by regulations during the pandemic and guided by personal ideologies. In a COVID endemic world, the question remains but is answered basis personal choices guided by prevention, protection and vanity.
When it comes to exercising some prefer yoga, some prefer pilates, some prefer weights, some prefer running and some prefer not to exercise. All choices lead to strong views about their relative effectiveness but does not lead to polarisation. In my view, in a post pandemic world on the dimension of mask wearing, the world is not polarised but rather people make individual choice for reasons of prevention, protection or vanity.
