BY CYNTHIA WAIRIMU
I know it has been a year now, but wearing masks is still the newest long-lasting addition to our daily must-wear accessories. Pants, shirts, hats, shoes, coats, pacifiers, all these are not new.
Wearing a mask is not new either. We did have the black plague of the 1300s, we have seen them worn by fashionistas as a beauty accessory before Covid-19. We have also seen them on medical practitioners and on those working on material or matter that could be detrimental if inhaled.
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So, what do I mean when I say masks are new?
Every time you walk into a room full of strangers or people you have not met in a while, and you can’t see their faces, you are drawn to their masks, and by the Pavlovian theory, attach the thought of the Covid-19 virus and if you delve deeper, the pandemic it hass caused in general, at a time when we are also experiencing drought at least since 2017, thus, every day, the feeling is new.
Before, the health pandemic, you didn’t worry if you would contract a virus, just by existing, that you hadn’t already been vaccinated from. Now, every day, every time you’re out and spot people in masks, every time you remember why for a period, daily activities and the economies as a whole had nearly halted, you think of the virus.
And what does it mean? It means loss, lots of it. Loss of loved ones, of support systems of resources, of wages. We sometimes put our worries aside, we know Covid-19 is real, but we cannot help but revert to our old customs, that are as deeply rooted into our structure as from the time of ages… from the first man on earth, having a conversation -sharing a meal without hiding your face, until it hits someone you love. Or you. And shaken to your core, you surround yourself with masks, sanitizer, and if possible, isolate yourself the best you can, at the back of your mind wondering, could this, all this, really be a scheme by some self-proclaimed oligarchy, to instill a culture of fear with the goal of garnering even more wealth, power, and control?
It wouldn’t be the first time, as Frank Furedi, a former professor of sociology, could attest. It has been used several occasions before on different scales by those in power or those seeking power to affect the people in a way deemed favourable for the perpetrators. He has also written a book, The Mau Mau war in perspective, of course he has faced a lot of criticism by peers of his own intellect.
Right now, there is a vaccine even though it will take a while to be distributed around the world. It is meant to slow down the COVID-19 pandemic with time. It’s supposed to be free in the USA and many of the developed countries, which begs the question, what of other countries? Africa? Also, how about countries such as Tanzania, how are they handling the pandemic seeing as it is that there is no information from them on matters Covid-19 except that they didn’t buy into the notion of the illness, to begin with.
However, even after Covid-19, masks might be here to stay as emerging and re-emerging infections become a threat to human health in recent decades. Given how interconnected the world is today, a pathogen capable of human-to-human transmission can spark an outbreak far from where it originated. Therefore, it might be wise to stick to masks, as it’s better to be safe than sorry.
