Coronavirus could leave U.S. with a lasting imprint: Masks as normal part of life

Amid the confusion from Washington, D. C., to Sacramento and parts in between, one thing has become abundantly clear in the era of COVID-19: The mask is having a moment.

On Thursday, President Trump announced that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would soon issue new guidelines, softening an earlier anti-mask stance. This came 33 days after the U. S. surgeon general tweeted that masks “are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom hewed to a similar path at a noon coronavirus briefing. He stopped short of telling Californians that they have to wear face coverings whenever they leave their homes, but he didn’t discourage use of the increasingly ubiquitous masks either.

“We believe, and we put out guidelines, that if individuals want to have face coverings, that that is a good thing and a preferable thing,” Newsom said, “in addition to the physical distancing and the stay-at-home order.”

Once the protective head gear of choice for Asian immigrants and tourists, masks have popped up on shoppers at Walmart and Costco, on Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez, on the girl next door and maybe even your grandparents. BuzzFeed.com and the New York Times Style section have published celebrity selfie galleries. Masks are silencing sneezes from coast to coast.

The science is far from settled about the level of protection they provide. Still, concerned citizens are churning out DIY masks in retirement communities, suburban ranch houses and artist studios, using patterns found online or shared via email. They are giving their creations to friends and family members, donating them to first responders and helping fill an enormous protective equipment gap in the U. S. healthcare system.

And when the coronavirus finally departs our shores, the pandemic could leave behind a permanent reminder: the mask as an everyday accessory of American life.

“We may be moving gently at this point toward the Asian culture where it’s more a usual thing to wear masks to prevent the transmission of viruses,” said Dr. William Schaffner, professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University. Even after the coronavirus crisis ends, “it wouldn’t surprise me if we don’t encourage this some in the near term.”

The problem, of course, is where to find them. The president may be encouraging the public to wear masks, but he hasn’t provided any shopping guides. They are a rare and precious commodity.

And that’s where Bibi Sheonarine comes in.

Three days before the first COVID-19 death was reported in California, the 66-year-old real estate broker decided to start making cloth masks from her Upland home.

First, she measured her face — ear to ear, nose to lower chin. Then she measured her husband’s face. He’s 73. She cut rectangles out of a bolt of cream-colored corduroy that she’d planned to use to make clothes for war-ravaged Syrians. She stitched elastic bands to the ends — and voila. The mask was done.

“It took me 10 minutes,” she said. “I made a simple video tutorial so others could make them, even a child.”

By March 27, she’d made 459 of them. Some went to local hospitals, others to family members in New York. And she realized that just maybe she and her neighbors could make a dent in the mask shortage. So she took to Facebook and Nextdoor, recruiting other crafty volunteers.

Nearly a week has passed, and more than 70 seamstresses in the Upland area have pitched in, cutting fabric or sewing. Sheonarine placed a bin filled with sewing kits on her porch; each contains instructions and enough fabric and elastic bands to make 25 masks. Eager mask-makers pick them up every day.

Sheonarine spends 20 hours or so each day on this potentially lifesaving project. She created a spreadsheet to organize the corps of volunteers, which grows in number every day. Recently a woman texted that her husband could cut t... (Read more)

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