Suddenly it became real in Poprad … the clarion cry from the powers that be came down demanding we wear face masks in public places.
And to make it happen, security guards at supermarkets began intimidating like pretend secret police officers if somebody wasn’t wearing one.
Within minutes coronavirus changed the face of this beautiful little city at the foot of the snow-bound High Tatras mountains.
There were no faces, just a small sea of white oblong material topped by ski glasses.
Slovakia has decided supermarkets are breeding grounds for coronavirus. You can get it off the shelf, so to speak.
Poprad, has become a dystopian film set, silent except for the mournful church bells, a rag-tag of ancient and new buildings now dark and abandoned, its historic square rattling in the freezing winds from the white shrouded mountains.
We had caught up with Hong Kong where people on the streets, trains and buses have been wearing masks for many weeks— ever since, in fact the much-maligned Press and media broke the news about this mysterious viral pneumonia from Wuhan, China.
While wearing a mask has become the norm in many countries, particularly in Asia, this mask frenzy has hit nowhere as hard as Hong Kong. At first residents lined up overnight outside drug-stores to buy them.
South Korea, Singapore and Japan handed them out to people while Taiwan and Thailand banned the export of masks to meet soaring local demand.
In our case most Slovaks got to know about the face-mask edict as official messages lit up their mobiles.
However, in the US wearing a face mask is still being seen as almost socially unacceptable. The US government, in line with World Health Organization recommendations, says only those who are sick, or caregivers, should wear them.
Surgeon General Jerome Adams even tweeted: “Seriously people- STOP BUYING MASKS! They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching Coronavirus.”
And Dr William Schaffner, a professor in Vanderbilt University’s Division of Infectious Diseases, says that medical masks commonly worn by members of the public do not fit snugly around the nose, cheeks and chin.
But, David Hui, a respiratory medicine expert at the Chinese University of Hong Kong says it’s “common sense” that wearing a mask would protect against infectious diseases like COVID-19.
“If you are standing in front of someone who is sick, the mask will give some protection,” Hui says. “The mask provides a barrier from respiratory droplets, which is predominantly how the virus spreads.”
Hui adds that the lack of evidence over the effectiveness of masks against the virus is no reason to dismiss them.
But even before the coronavirus outbreak, masks were common across East Asia—worn for a variety of reasons. It’s common for people who are ill and want to protect the people around them to wear masks. Others wear masks during cold and flu seasons.
The difference in perception of the mask comes down, in part, to cultural norms about covering your face, Hui says. “In social interactions in the West, you need to show your identity and make eye contact. Facial expression is very important.”
So, it was little eerie then to see this burgeoning city – a representative part of the Little Big Country – becoming home to the masked marauders of the supermarkets.
They move silently and with the precision of intent, almost like the old communist cogs in the wheel, clearing shelves and fridges … yes, because of a virus, decades of freedom, for a few seconds at least, seemed to have been wiped out.
The dystopian world of empty shelves, regulation and uniformity and faces well hidden has just returned to Slovakia.
