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[email protected]; @gilliantettAsChristosLynteris,amedicalanthropologist
at theUniversity of St Andrews in Scotland, put
itinanopinioncolumnforTheNewYorkTimes:
“Members ofacommunitywear masksnot only
to fend off disease [inapandemic]. Theywear
masks also to showthat theywant to stick, and
cope,togetherunderthebaneofcontagion.”
ThisdynamicisnowsowellentrenchedinAsia
that,asGideonLasco,ananthropologistwhohas
studied“mask culture”extensively,writesin
the social science publication Sapiens:“Cultural
values,perceptions of control, social pressure,civic duty,familyconcerns,self-expression,
beliefs about public institutions,andevenpoli-
tics areall wrappedup in the‘symbolic efficacy’
offacemasks.”
Some Europeans and Americans will scoff.
Anglo-Saxonculturetends to prize individual-
ism, not thetypeofcollectivism that has often
beenvaluedinAsia. And inacity such asNew
York, mask-wearing hasbeensuchaminority
practicethatithasalmostbeenassociatedwitha
senseofstigma–inrecenttimesespecially,since
someviewitasasignofsickness.T
hepoint about mass mask-wearing
is that this stigma tends to disap-
pear ifeveryone puts one on. In
fact,notwearingamask is now
almostasource of shame in places
such asJapan. And while it might
behard to imagine thisbecoming
the case in the US,nothing should
beruledout,givenhowquickly
the shock ofCovid-19 isreshaping
our ideas of risk, and leading to a
rising appreciation inthewest for
collectivistvalues.
Indeed,PresidentDonald Trump has now
indicatedthathemightembracethewidespread
use of masks,once stocks arereadilyavailable.
Someofhismedicaladviserswouldwelcomethis.
Iwouldtoo.AsLynterisnotes,epidemicsshould
beunderstoodnot just as“biologicalevents but
alsoassocialprocesses”,sincethis“iskeytotheir
successful containment”.Ifrituals orsymbols –
likemasks–helpustorealisethis,thensomuch
thebetter.
Toput itanother way,beatingCovid-19will
not justrequiremedical science, butadose of
socialsciencetoo.E
arlier thisweekAustria tookastrik-
ing step to combat the coronavirus
pandemic when its government
announcedthatpeoplewould notbe
allowedtoenterplacessuchassuper-
marketswithoutwearingafacemask.
“It’sclear that thewearing of
masks willbeabig change, but it
is necessary toreduce the spread
further,”declaredSebastianKurz,
the country’schancellor,explaining
that maskswouldbedistributedfor
freeatshopentrances.
Some mightroll theireyesatthis–includ-
ing many scientists.Thereisdisagreementover
whetherwearing low-quality masks prevents
people from inhaling the virus,evenifitdoes
reducethechancesofthemspreadingitbysneez-
ingorcoughing.
Austriawillonlybedistributingregularmasks
to shoppers,not the N95respirators (which do
reduceinhalationrisks).SomeUSandEuropean
doctorsbelievemask-wearing is sopointless for
those who do not usuallyface the directrisks
medicalstaffareexposedtothattheyhaveurged
consumerstodonateanymaskstheyhavebought
tohospitalsinstead.
YetIthink itwouldbeamistaketosneer at
Austria’smove–for tworeasons.First,wear-
ing masks has one practicalpersonalbenefit:it
remindsyoutoavoidtouchingyourface.Thismat-
ters,asDavid Price, an intensive-caredoctor at
NewYork’sWeillCornellMedicalCenter,explains
inacompellingvideoabouthisexperiencestreat-
ingCovid-19patients.Istronglyrecommendit.
“Inthenextfewmonthsweneedtotrainour-
selvesnottotouchourfaces,andtellpeoplethat
wearetaking this seriously,”heexplains,noting
that sinceamask has limitedprotectivepowers,
abandana canbejust as effectivefor “training”.
(One of my teenage daughters nowwears her
favouritescarfonourrareessentialoutingsonto
NewYork’sstreets,whichbothdoesthetrickand
boostshermoodenormously.)
Thesecondreasonisthatmask-wearingisnot
justaboutindividualpsychologyorbehaviour;it
has social implications aswell. Scientists some-
timesignorethis,sincetheyaretrainedtorelyon
statisticsandtheresultsofscientificexperiments.
But ifever therewasatime when culture–and
cultural analysis–matters,itisnow.This is true
notjustintermsofhowsocietiesare responding
to thecoronavirus crisis,but also when it comes
tohowdiseasesspread.
Peter Baehr,aDutch sociologist who stud-
iedthe emergence of so-calledmask culturein
HongKong during the Sars outbreak in 2003,
outlinesthiswellinarecentbook.AsBaehrnotes,
when the outbreakbegan, maskswereinitially
discussedonlyinmedical terms.But the con-
versation soon assumedanotherdynamic, since
by wearing masks “people communicatedtheir
responsibilitiestothesocialgroupofwhichthey
weremembers”.‘Mask-wearinghassocial
implications.Scientists,trained
torelyonstatisticsandthe
resultsofscientificexperiments,
sometimesignorethis’
GILLIAN
TETT
PARTING SHOTWhywearing
masksisthe
wayforward