Lets all ease up and have a look at the actual level of fatalities versus those infected. THE VAST MAJORITY are surviving this. Granted, it does look freakily infectious. The number of health care workers that have been infected while treating patients is of particular concern. I’m presuming that these health care workers are employing standard “barrier” protection (ie, gloves, masks and quarantine)
As for masks, I once worked as a nurse in operating theatres where we were obliged to wear masks to prevent infection - to the patient. There are arguments too and for on this front but strangely never in relation to being infected.
The counter mask wearing argument went something like - masks provide an ideal area for the build up of bugs, ie, a warm humid area right in front of the mouth and nose where bugs that would be highly susceptible to the dry cool environment of an operating theatre could grow and multiply and ultimately literally “fall-out” onto whoever was under the knife.
As far as I’m concerned unless you’re wearing an industrial mask, a cotton strip in front of your cakehole will probably encourage what you’re trying to discourage.
On a lighter note:
Atypical Masks for Atypical Pneumonia
March 27, 2003
gweilodiaries.com/archives/000762.html
A mystery virus may be sweeping around the tiny ex-British colony of Hong Kong, causing a dozen deaths and hundreds of hospitalizations but, as Chuck Hiccough reports, it’s just another reason for the inhabitants of this label-mad city to go shopping. . . .
Hong Kong is in the grips of a mystery pneumonia bug, and the local populace has clearly become worried by the epidemic. Walking around the sidewalks and travelling on the subway in this frenetic city, one can now see a large proportion of the local populace wearing protective surgical masks to cover their faces. But some inhabitants of this city - which in the 1990s became internationally synonymous with conspicuous consumption, infamously outdoing even Manhattan and Beverly Hills in sheer showiness - have grasped the situation in their own hands and taken it as an excuse to go shopping.
War may have just broken out in Iraq, and a contagious pneumonia is on the loose, but Hong Kong people can’t seem to get enough of their beloved designer labels. On Saturday, Louis Vuitton in Hong Kong released a limited edition atypical pneumonia mask, specially for the Hong Kong market, in super-soft Connolly leather with a monogrammed sterling silver clasp. This luxurious and unfeasibly comfortable mask comes with a matching protective case to allow its users to store it away safely in their Kelly bags without contaminating their shatoosh shawls. At a retail price of HK$1,800 (approximately US$230), one would have expected these to be more of a publicity stunt than a serious retail proposition, but by Saturday lunchtime, all 88 limited edition masks had been sold.
Across town in the sprawling Gucci boutique, the company spokesperson said that they would be shortly releasing a designer mask as an addition to their summer 2003 accessories range. She declined to mention details, except to say that it would of course be in black and would incorporate the Gucci buckle. A Hong Kong tai-tai (the local equivalent of ladies-who-lunch) in the store at that time said that she was eagerly awaiting its release and had put herself down on the waiting list, adding “Everyone knows that black is the new Burberry”. Burberry, meanwhile, has not as yet brought out a mask and says that it has no immediate plans to do so, but fake Burberry masks can already be found across the border in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, where Hong Kong people and visiting tourists go for day trips to stock up on fake goods. For just RMB10 US$1.25), one can get a surgical mask with a Burberry check trim and some functional yet rather fetching beige elastic earloops. This correspondent bought a box of twenty, and was given a free “men’s hold-all”, which despite its uncanny resemblance to a toiletries bag appears to be hugely popular with the local menfolk.
All this consumerism may appear to be frivolous, especially in times such as these, but it does emphasize the breathtaking speed at which the fashion industry reacts to the latest news and trends. Mainstream and luxury goods retailers are increasingly capitalizing on current affairs in order to come up with killer fads. And where else to do this than in a city full of fashionistas: as a Hong Kong advertising executive put it, “When you have a cutting edge, never-seen-before virus, you’ve got to fight it with a cutting edge, never-seen-before mask. Designer masks for designer viruses”.
Back at Louis Vuitton, a tai-tai who had bought two of the limited edition masks - presumably one for herself and one for her husband - wandered back into the store yesterday to say how much she loved her new mask and how jealous the other members of her lunch group were. Before speaking she of course had to unclasp the Louis Vuitton Connolly leather mask that she was wearing… and then reached down to unclasp the second Louis Vuitton Connolly leather mask that her pet poodle Benzie was wearing.
Atypical masks for atypical pneumonia in an atypically unique city.
It’s part of my daily exercise. (Yeah, right)