Wednesday, April 15, 2020

MASKS: PREJUDICES AND POSSIBILITIES



Few of us like to wear masks. They stigmatize. We can feel contaminated, tainted, like Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorn’s classic, The Scarlet Letter, the story of the woman condemned to display an “A” on her breast to shame her for the sin of adultery.

The assumption of wearing a mask is that we are sick and should be shunned. Some bosses have forbidden their workers to wear masks, fearing that people will assume they are sick and frighten the customers. In the past, we’ve associated mask-wearers with hiding, used to disguise the wearer. A bank robber’s mask conceals his identity. In the musical, “The Phantom of the Opera,” the lead character wears a mask to hide his deformed face.

Masks have been with us for a very long time, with the oldest dating to around 7000 BC.
They were first used for rituals and ceremonies in many places of the world, usually representing supernatural beings, ancestors, and imagined figures. In China, they are thought to originate in ancient religious ceremonies. Native American masks were used for spiritual practices, entertainment and medicinal functions. Halloween masks originated in the Celtic culture, used as disguises to confuse the ghosts that emerged in the fall. Masks have also been used in hunting, feasts, wars, performances, theatres, fashion, ornamentation, sports, movies as well as for medical, protective or occupational purposes. In Italy during the 16th century, elaborate dances or masquerade balls, invited members of the upper classes to flaunt different colors to symbolize traits like elegance, dignity, sophistication, mystery and seductiveness. 

My associations to mask-wearing go back decades to a long-forgotten memory of my mother, who raised her babies in the 1950’s. When she was sick with an upper respiratory tract infection, she covered her nose and mouth with a soft, white, washable cotton mask to protect the baby when she held him to her breast to nurse.

Also, while a medical student, I attended operations with surgeons who never seemed troubled by their masks that protected the patient as well as themselves from the exchange of germs and bodily fluids. They managed to endure the mask for long hours, under strong lights on their feet performing delicate manipulations of tissues. 

STIGMA
A helpful April 7 article in the Wall Street Journal reframes the symbol of stigma to caring about another person’s safety.  Wearing a mask is not a signal that we are contaminated but a statement that says, “I care about you. I want to protect you.”

We look to a president as children look to parents to teach proper behavior that aids our survival in the world. Some parents, like some presidents, steer us in sanguine directions. But President Trump shuns wearing a mask. I venture to guess that his stance stems from machismo; to him wearing a mask blares VULNERABILITY. But his behavior is self-centered, ignoring the fact that a mask also protects and shows caring about the health and safety of others. 

If a mask isn’t available, we compromise with a thick, nonporous fabric lined with a layer or two of paper towels that effectively filters the air. Directions can be readily found on the internet. 

THE DOWNSIDE
The downside is that we have to endure the discomforts and inconveniences of these face coverings. Breathing into them heats up the air and causes us to perspire and our noses to run. Even surgeons in the OR had to request an assistant to wipe the perspiration from their brows occasionally.

An N95 allows air to sneak around it if not properly fitted. We have to be wary of continuing to adjust the mask. We have to remember not to touch our faces that may itch from the mask.
Filtering air slows down air flow and breathing can be difficult. Wearing a mask can give a false sense of security, causing us to assume we’re safe and don’t need to wash our hands. 
A dirty mask is a source of contamination. We have to remember to wash hands before putting on and after taking off the mask.

Under the confines of the mask, some of us are likely to produce more bodily fluids—We perspire and our noses tend to run under the heat of the mask and the repeated exhalations that warm our faces.  So we have to be ready with a tissue to wipe away the bodily fluids produced by wearing the gear that it protects us and others while also inconveniencing us.

THE POSITIVE SIDE
On the positive side, the mask is a psychological signal that we are in a pandemic and a 
 visual reminder to wash our hands and maintain social distance. It also gives us a sense of control when we have so little control in our situation

It behooves us to stay as healthy as long as possible, at least until we have more information, and drugs proven to treat and vaccines proven to prevent. It is reassuring to remember that many people perished in the early days of the HIV epidemic until medicines were discovered to keep them healthy for a lifetime.

We cannot maintain our social distance forever. Inevitably, we have to return to our workplaces; the stores and restaurants must open their doors. We want the arts to return; we want to attend the theatre, concerts, the opera.

A fact is that coronavirus, like the flu is here with us to stay. Able to mutate and afflict unpredictably, the rate of affliction/infection will ebb and flow, increasing and decreasing according to the weather and innumerable other factors, as yet to be defined/determined.

The French existentialist, writer Albert Camus in his 1947 masterpiece “The Plague” spells out the human predicament: our vulnerability, that we can be exterminated at any time by a virus, accident, or another human being. He points out that the threats are ever-present and that no one is immune. For our mental sanity, we don’t often dwell on this reality.

A neat solution to our present situation of having to live with the coronavirus and future pervasive infections is to don our masks with pride, to see them not as a sign of stigma, but as a statement of caring for self and others. 

We could even begin to view them as an extension of our wardrobe, like earrings, necklaces, neckties, hats or body piercings. They can ornament and decorate us. We can be creative and inventive regarding their style, color, material. 

Companies can invest in designers who could style them for the seasons— darker colors in winter, lighter shades for summer and with the right fit like bras, to accommodate different sizes and shapes of faces, instead of breasts. They could fashion various kinds of nozzles, airways to filter out viruses and impurities in the air.

Designers and scientists can work to discover new fabrics, washable and fast-drying, woven to combine breathability with the most effective filter.

Instead of an onerous symbol, a mask will be a fashion statement. I envision one person saying to another, “What a beautiful mask! Where did you get it? I’d like to have one like it. Do they have any more?”

In summary: The mask has a long and varied history and for better or worse, will be an essential part of our future. Let’s consider the possibility of the mask as a fashion statement as well as a symbol of caring for others. 

Dear Reader, I welcome your comments: jsimon145@gmail.com

Friday, April 3, 2020

Some Upside to Our New Reality



To help me adjust to life in the midst of the pandemic, I try to focus on the positive as I speak to others and stay informed of the latest details in the news about the virus.  

First of all, we are all in this together. The novel coronavirus strikes indiscriminately. Not even  the rich and famous are immune; this change can be heartening when inequalities and injustices in our country had soared along with the stock market.

All aspects of life in our world have been altered, from the environment to our personal hygiene. Everything has been impacted: family life, business, health care, technology, politics and the arts. 

In terms of the environment, a benefit is that the pollution has diminished as a result of less travel and traffic and the closing of factories.

Technology provides us with tools to teach students and conduct business remotely and opens up the need for further development of cloud-based technology.

Telemedicine is expanding as its benefits are more widely recognized: an ability to reach more people, more quickly to diagnose and treat.

Regarding our work life, I hear stories every day of how people are doing better work at home without the distractions of colleagues and bosses in the workplace. (But it has added a stressor to parents’ lives, many of whom have to work from home while they homeschool their children.) 

Some bosses even prefer that their teams work remotely, saying that this method puts workers on a more equal footing and enhances communication. 

Meetings and conference calls are better appreciated because they meet the need for outside contact and connection.

Staying in one place adds time to our schedule, allowing some of us the chance to pursue our hobbies and creative projects. Without the possibility of dining out at restaurants, some relish the chance to cook healthier, homemade meals. A surge in sales of seeds and potting soil shows that people are gardening. Ms. W, for instance, is planting vegetables on her terrace and looks forward to eating what she grows. Others have more time to practice their musical instruments. Mr. S. ordered a new piano for his apartment. Some of us are studying a new language. Others find that working on a large jigsaw puzzle can be a kind of meditation, something they can do with or without help from others.

Some now have the chance to explore relationships with their families, especially beneficial for younger people who have lived apart and return to their family home for space, comfort, camaraderie. 

Husbands have become more better teammates, pitching in to help their working wives in the home with their children.

Teachers are receiving appreciation by parents who have the chance to view their children’s school work online.

Pets are delighted to have us around and with their soothing ways, provide good company.

We have time to reach out to old friends and check in with older relatives who live far away.

Workers who continue to serve us are receiving more appreciation and delivery people are receiving bigger tips. 

Artistic communities, theatre, music, libraries and our gyms have reached out to connect, offer support to keep us entertained and healthy.

Even big business is finding ways to help: 

1.     Apparel companies are making masks and other protective garments. 

2.     Big companies are producing ventilators and N95 respirators and a car-parts company is producing hygienic masks.

3.     Tech companies are donating computing power to crunch data and search for a cure.

4.     Distilleries and breweries are making hand sanitizer.

5.     Leaders are learning about empathy, treating their employees in a human-centric way—
compensating for lost hours, covering sick pay, assisting with child care and avoiding layoffs. 
    
6.     Luxury hotels and cruise ships are becoming makeshift quarantine shelters.


At normal times, we rarely stop to think how we’re all part of the fabric of the human family. Now, more than ever, we have become aware that international coordination is vital to cope with the current apocalypse. 

Dear Reader, I welcome your comments about how you have found positive ways to cope with our new reality.

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