By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, May 28: Face masks have almost become a standard clothing item these days, as compulsory to wear while going out as shirts and pants. They were always in use in Kathmandu as a protection against dust and pollution particles but the coronavirus pandemic has really thrust the humble face coverings into the spotlight and has increased their importance and prominence.
Francis Maskey is a fashion student in the US and he called the current widespread adoption of masks a culture shift.
“Previously, masks were an accessory, not a necessity,” he said. “Now, it is a safety measure, a shield. You need to have it or else you are in the minority.”
He believed that the pandemic would get people used to covering their faces and to some extent, make it a fixture of our clothing culture in the future. “A considerable number of people are starting to like using face masks as a precaution against diseases, so I feel that they will continue to use masks even after the pandemic is over – be it for pollution or protection or because the people around them are using it,” he said.
Science is also on the side of the masks, as a study published last month in Nature Medicine, a monthly journal publishing original peer-reviewed research papers in all areas of medicine, presented. The study, conducted by researchers from Harvard University, University of Hong Kong and University of Maryland, showed that for people without face masks, 30 per cent of the respiratory droplet samples collected were found to contain coronavirus, and for those wearing them, no virus was found. People without face masks were also found to be more infected with influenza and common cold than people with.
To put into context, the study showed that masks protect people from getting infections that are transmitted through respiratory droplets. When infected people wear masks, their droplets don’t get out into the environment and when non-infected people wear them, they are shielded from inhaling infected droplets already present in the atmosphere (although not fully).
But not everybody is convinced. Dilip Bahadur Shakya does not doubt the science but he does not think that there is a need for masks in Kathmandu yet. “Kathmandu hasn’t got a COVID-19 problem like, say, Banke or Bardiya. So, wearing masks doesn’t make sense,” he said.
He argued that masks made breathing uncomfortable and he would personally not wear it. “Community transmission hasn’t begun here so I will not put myself through that discomfort.”