Charles writes about this morning's emergency, but he attaches it to the larger topic of the importance of clear ("proper") communication. He also notes that the masking policy changes once again as of tomorrow: no masking at all except for hospitals with more than 50 beds. I didn't know this; my Korean coworker and my boss made no mention of it, so this is news to me. Welcome news, to be sure. Will citizens drop their masks? No, of course not. Fear (fear of ostracism, superstitious fear of the virus) and inertial habit still reign. I'd say about half the people I see on sidewalks still mask up. In subways, the number tends to vary. I've been on trains where almost no one had a mask on, and I've been on trains where most of the people were masked up. Koreans are still figuring this out, I guess. It's probably going to take years, and it doesn't help that Koreans, like many East Asians, were masking up for different reasons even before the pandemic struck. So there'll always be a reason to wear a mask, I think.
Anyway, Charles's post discusses matters in depth and detail while also providing a historical perspective. Be sure to give him a read.
4 comments:
You had mentioned in an earlier post as well that half the people you see on the streets are still masking up. At the time, I thought it might be hyperbole, but now you've said it again. That is honestly surprising to me, because I've been paying attention in recent days to people on the streets, and in my neighborhood I would say no more than about 20% of the people I see are wearing masks outside. On campus the number is even lower. I just got back from class, and in my short walk back to my building I probably saw a hundred students or so--maybe five of them had masks on. Inside/outside doesn't seem to matter, either. So few students are wearing masks these days that the ones who do are now conspicuous. Which leads me to wonder: What the heck is going on in your neck of the woods?
As for my use of "proper," I chose that word deliberately because I think a lot of communication is not only not clear, it's not even correct. Like the Sewol Ferry announcements to stay put, or the "missile launch" wording in our emergency messages (political semantics aside). But, yes, clear communication is the ultimate goal.
I could ask the same of your area, but you're in a university neighborhood, so it's natural for the younger, slightly more open-minded people to be among the first to take off their masks. In my district (Daechi), even with all the young students at the local hagweons, the kids wear masks because their parents make them do so. Still tons of masks here. It's annoying. All those bitter clingers, to use Obama's buzzwords.
Back when I was walking everywhere, I saw relatively fewer and fewer masks on the bike paths. I imagine that's even truer now.
I wonder, though, if younger people would actually be more likely to take off their masks. I've heard that a lot of younger people have grown so accustomed to the masks that they feel self-conscious without them. Then again, young people are quicker to adapt to new conditions.
I was downtown last weekend (not this past weekend), though, and it did seem like a lot of people were walking around without masks. I can't say I was paying particularly close attention, though.
I'll kind of meet you halfway on this. It's hard to make an argument from a single data point, but on the subway tonight, there were 19 people in my car, with 5 wearing masks, so... about 25% maskage? As I think I said in a different blog post, the percentage of masked people on the subway seems to vary according to time of day, and as the day gets later, more people seem to be unmasked.
I actually get that, on a crowded subway, there could be good, prudential reasons for wearing a mask. A subway is a Petri dish that gives anyone's immune system a workout. Masks don't strike me as entirely irrational when you're in a small, confined space with little air circulation, especially with a lot of other people. I personally don't buy into wearing a mask in such situations, but my point is that people who do wear masks in those cases probably have good, rational reasons for doing so (or at least, I'm more willing to give them the benefit of the doubt). But outside, in the open air? If you're wearing a mask outside, then as far as I'm concerned, you're crazy. You're certainly not following any recognizable science.
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