I feel like I finally get the mask thing.
When there were previous illnesses that didn’t hit this country hard enough to affect my life I’d see them sometimes, though usually on foreign students (which sort of reinforced this not being a here problem) or when I was in Thailand.
I’d read about how there was no evidence of their efficacy, and think yes, silly people doing a panic, I wouldn’t do that.
I went out to uni on Monday, and most people weren’t wearing anything, but I saw a few masks, and also a few people covering that area in other ways, like with a scarf or one of these.
My first thought was, that’s really dumb, right? If actual surgical masks don’t do anything, that definitely won’t.
But later in the day, I wished I had one.
Firstly, we get told that there’s no evidence the surgical masks do anything, and it seems logical that it’s even less likely that a non-medical-grade mask does anything.
But - reason number 1 - it’s hard for me to believe they can do *literally nothing*. Like, maybe the virus is too small to be filtered out when it’s just in the air, but a liquid droplet from someone who spits when they talks might still not land on your actual face. Plus, I can’t touch my nose and mouth if they’re covered, and I feel like the feeling of it on my face would help remind me to not absent-mindedly touch my face, either.
Reason number 2 is the big one, though. When I unavoidably need to go out into the world, even knowing that there’s no evidence it’s effective - I would *feel* safer and less vulnerable wearing something over my face. I wouldn’t find myself pointlessly and anxiety-inducingly holding my breath every time I catch a stranger’s scent in the air. It would protect, in other words, my psychological health.
I feel like stress and anxiety are going to be a big deal going forward, especially for anyone who still has to go out on a regular basis.
The UK government might have been wrong about their initial strategy, but I don’t think they were wrong about some of the implied premises: that the disappearance of life-as-normal, and the pervasion of preventative measures into every aspect of day-to-day life, are things with real and serious psychological side effects, and that panic and fear can cause harm as well as a virus.
So, don’t buy up actual surgical masks; people need those. But if a dust mask or a scarf over your face or whatever makes you feel less anxious about doing shit you have to do anyway, I say why not.
(‘You have to do anyway’ is important - don’t fool yourself into thinking it has an actual significant effect, and thus neglecting other risk management. You still have to do everything else, and it should be for when your only other option is doing the same thing with a bare face.)
So far, I’ve not quite been able to take my own advice. I’m too self-conscious, I guess, that I’ll be mistaken for someone who thinks it’s actually effective. But next time I have to go out, whenever that ends up being, I’ll seriously consider it - just to feel calmer.
(Hey, doesn’t stress tank your immune system? Could be something to it after all..)
