The last few times I visited Japan (pre-pandemic) I observed a lot of people wearing face masks in public. Will this become a global trend as a result of the pandemic?
From NY Mag:
Lexi McCoy, who works at a coffee shop-cum-record store in Los Angeles, has also noticed that her health has actually improved since masking up. "I feel like every other month, I was sick, with colds or whatever," she said of the before times. "It was really messing up my life. I am in a band and I play shows. When I was getting sick all the time, I would lose my voice and I couldn't sing." McCoy couldn't figure out why she was always under the weather. "I thought, This is my life. I just get sick all the time."
Then came the pandemic. She stopped playing shows, started wearing a mask at work, and wearing gloves to handle cash from customers. "This is the longest stretch of time I have ever not gotten sick," she said. She acknowledges that perhaps this is due to going out a lot less, not sharing microphones at concerts, etc. But mask-wearing, she believes, has also played a major role. "Some people might say it would be dramatic to keep wearing a mask when masks aren't mandated anymore, but I think if it protects yourself and others, it's a good call." Wearing a mask in public has been commonplace in parts of East Asia for upward of 100 years following several epidemics there.
