OUR STRANGE NEW WORLD

(They get in the way) Based on my recent comment to an article in The Register . The Argument For Face Masks? One of the surprising aspects of the pandemic is that a behaviour considered pretty normal, in much of the Far East and South Asia, is so controversial in West, attracting many conspiracy theories.  That act is wearing a face mask, in public, either where one has cold or flu, or during an epidemic, is done by pretty much anyone who lives in China, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea.  In the Far East, personal responsibility is still very much a thing; people tend to keep their diseases to themselves and the masks are pretty ubiquitous at any time. So why do we wear face masks when in confinement? Masks are just used as things that get in the way of other things. In this case, we are hoping masks get in the way of airborne droplets containing a virus. Masks are porous, which is generally a good thing.  The wearer of a none porous mask would have a worse problem than the virus itse