A Chinese friend told me that he was stared at weirdly in the Paris metro wearing his mask. Yesterday I heard that an Asian woman wearing a mask was insulted and expelled from a train by the other passengers. Incidents like this has triggered lots of debate and anger on the internet recently. But before jumping into the battle of anti-discrimination, what draws my attention first is the different usage of masks in China and in France during this coronavirus crisis:
According to the French Ministry of Health, one is encouraged to wear a mask only when showing coronavirus symptoms. Wearing a mask by the non-sick population to avoid catching the disease is NOT recommended. People are encouraged to wash hands often and to cover their mouths when they sneeze or cough.
In China, people have been educated that wearing a mask is a way to PREVENT or decrease the chance of getting infected by the coronavirus, as well as avoid passing the virus to others. That’s why so many Chinese people race to buy masks for themselves and their families. What’s more, after living through SARS and the pollution PM2.5, protecting one’s health with a mask has become a habit.
As a result, to a French, wearing a mask indicates that someone is already sick, while for a Chinese, wearing a mask is also a self-protection measure. This different interpretation of wearing a mask may have caused misunderstanding and public panic.
Anyway, wearing a mask does no harm to others, on the contrary, it protects us especially that the coronavirus has an incubation period of 1-14 days, so even a person without any symptoms can also be a virus carrier. So next time you see a Chinese tourist in a metro wearing a mask, there’s no need to be scared. (I don’t know if the difference I described also applies to other countries. If so, please kindly forward the message.)
#wearingmask #coronavirus #misunderstanding #discrimination #sliceoflife #tinyeyescomics
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