Coronavirus has become an international pandemic, and in the U.S., most people flock to their nearby markets to stock up groceries, hand sanitizers, disinfecting wipes and toilet paper. However, in Texas, people rarely wear face masks.
It’s frustrating because the government and citizens continue to promote social distancing and avoiding touching one’s face. Yet the one thing that helps with those issues, which is a face mask, is not used nearly enough in public places. Coronavirus has been a problem in Asian countries since early this year, and most of their citizens wear facemasks in public areas. But it’s not the same in America. In February, a woman wearing a face mask was assaulted and called “a disease” in New York City. Similarly, multiple attacks on Asians have been reported just because they’re wearing face masks, which is different from American culture.
On March 17, China reported zero new local infections, according to The New York Times.
In Vietnam, most of the new cases are immigrants and people flying in from outside of the country. While its government has officially said their citizens have to start wearing face masks since March 16, most people have sought out for it since the early days. The result? As of now, there have been just more than 100 official cases with zero deaths out of 90 million citizens in the country, most of them are foreigners or Vietnamese flying back from other countries. But people cannot just expect the officials to stop the spread while going to Target to stock their grocery bags without prevention. A single cough or sneeze can leave the virus in the air for a long time, and with such a highly contagious virus, people need to be aware of wearing face masks more than ever.
Wearing a face mask is a precautionary step, and there’s nothing wrong with it. Sometimes, prevention better than cure, and some people just don’t notice that.
