Masks....Not Just For Carnevale Anymore

To mask or not to mask?  That's usually a question Italians ask every year at the end of February during Carnevale.  And although this year's event was cut short due to the coronavirus, the question remains.

In the beginning there was a myriad of mixed messages. When we were told masks were only necessary for doctors we wondered why they worked for doctors and not the rest of us.  And then we were told they were only for doctors and infected people. But with a 14-day incubation period there were a lot of infected people seemingly healthy and maskless. That seems like it might have been the right time to say we should all be wearing them.

On March 12, nine Chinese epidemic experts came to help out with the crisis in Italy.  Upon arrival they were photographed with the President of the Italian Red Cross.  Only one person pictured was maskless (and he wasn't Chinese).

One of the biggest concerns for the Chinese 9 (as I affectionately call them) was that few Italians were wearing masks. That seems like it might have been another good time to make them compulsory. Experts from a country already devastated by the disease are in shock that we're not using masks and we continue not using them.

A few weeks ago companies were required to supply their employees with masks and the employees were required to wear them. But this rule only applied at work. I asked myself why you should protect yourself from your co-workers but not the guy at the gas station.

The last week of March I'd heard that volunteers from the Civil Protection Agency would be delivering masks to each home in the community. It's not the kind of delivery one gets excited about, yet I found myself waiting anxiously (not for the masks, but for fear of the masked men).

I've been spending most of my time in the yard during the lockdown, but fortunately on delivery day I was sitting at my kitchen table. Seeing the car in the driveway was enough to make me cry. A masked man jumped out and came toward the house. I waved, motioned to leave the masks on the windowsill and gave him a thumbs up. I imagine he smiled under his mask then ran back to the car delivering good cheer to the rest of the town.

I left the little plastic-wrapped package outside on the windowsill all day. I could read the first few lines of the upsidedown letter from inside the house.  

"Dear Citizens,
It's a time of patience and responsibility.
We still can't say with certainty how long all of this will last. It is definitely a difficult period for all of us, no one excluded."

The letter was folded at that point so I couldn't read the rest.  I do know that on that day, March 30, masks still weren't mandatory. This was just a goodie bag from Officer Friendly. 
   
On April 14, Italy changed its rules and entered  'lockdown soft'. 51 days after they canceled the conclusion of Carnevale due to the coronavirus they have finally decided that masks are obligatory for everyone... everywhere (except at home). 

I hope other countries don't wait for the (finally)-masked-Italian 9 to show up on their doorstep before deciding it's the right time to make masks mandatory.  To mask or not to mask? Don't wait until Carnevale 2021 to decide.