Germs are everywhere

Being the mother of a toddler, I’m bombarded with germs all the time. Every week there’s some kid who has hand, foot, and mouth disease at school, or some sort-of stomach virus is going around at the gym’s childcare. And of course, it’s flu season so there’s that to contend with.

What’s a germophobic mom to do? Well, I have a stock of face masks at the ready all the time, not just flu season.

I 💗 face masks! And apparently so do Asian countries (which is where I got the idea from).

So why are surgical face masks common in Asian countries?

For health reasons;

• The first, and most obvious, reason is that face masks help to prevent the spread of germs. We all know that you should cover your mouth and nose when you sneeze because of the spray, right? Well, how handy would it be to just have a face mask so you don’t have to do that frantic search for a tissue? Or knowing what the protocol is for covering a sneeze or cough? When I was a kid, they told us to use our hands to cover our mouths. Then it became, use the inside of your elbow (which doesn’t catch anything 🙄).
• It keeps your airways warm and moist so that you can recover that much faster. You know how when you’re sick and take medication for it, it tends to dry out your nasal passages and/or throat, not to mention all the mouth breathing? Well, a face masks traps in your breath so that you’re not inhaling cold air into those raw passages.

For social reasons;

• You’re considered rude if you’re sick and you don’t wear a face mask. They all know that a face mask helps to prevent the spread of germs. So if you’re hacking up a lung without one, people are going to think you’re an idiot.
• Face masks are practically vogue in Asian countries. If you keep up with K-pop or K-drama celebrities at all, you likely would’ve seen them in a face mask. They wear them to go incognito. It’s almost a statement that one has arrived as a celebrity if you have to wear a face mask so you don’t get recognized.
• It’s a social cue for people to leave you alone. It’s like when people wear headphones. It’s a signal that they don’t want to interact with people right now. Sure it’s a bit antisocial but as long as it keeps their germs contained to them, I really don’t care. (That’s my germophobia talking.)

I’ll take a face mask please!

As you can probably tell, I’m really big on face masks. I even found these cute ones!

I can’t understand why it hasn’t caught on in non-Asian countries.

My doctor’s office has a box of face masks in a handy dispenser next to a giant bottle of hand sanitizer. That box is always full from going untouched… at least the hand sanitizer runs low. So I know people are using that at the very least.

I think the hesitancy to wear these masks in the States is that people assume that the wearer is afraid of contracting germs from the people around them. When it’s actually that the wearer is being considerate of those around them and shielding them from the wearer’s germs. It’s the same idea as when doctors wear these masks during surgery. I mean, do people think that the doctor is trying not to catch whatever the opened patient on the operating table has?

Hope for the future

Recently, a friend’s child had croup (an upper airway infection characterized by a barking cough). After her child was on the mend but still coughing, she sent him back to school wearing a surgical mask. And you know what? This five year old actually kept it on! In fact, he refused to take it off because he was afraid he’d get other kids sick! How awesome is that?

Oh, by the way, my friend and her family are not Asian. However, they did spend some time in Asia due to being a military family. That’s where they got in this habit of wearing surgical masks during sickness.

So if this five year old kid can understand the importance of wearing a surgical mask to prevent spreading germs, then what excuse do the rest of us have for not wearing them?

Hopefully, word will spread and not the germs!