If the mask has become the greatest symbol of Covid prevention, releasing its use in almost all environments conveys what message? The answer is right there: it seems that life has returned to the pre-pandemic period, when equipment was reserved for health professionals.
Several capitals made the use of face protection more flexible, even in closed environments. The last one was São Paulo, after the state governor, João Doria (PSDB), announced the release this Thursday (17). He defined the situation as a “moment of joy, of celebrating” after almost two years of obligatoriness.
For Vera Paiva, a professor of social psychology at USP, creating this kind of day of liberation is a profound mistake, as it sends the message that the pandemic is over. “The symbolisms of prevention are relevant,” she says.
According to her, celebrating the end of use reinforces the negative charge that many associate with the mask at a time when it is still necessary in many situations.
Paiva makes a comparison with the response to AIDS, a topic she has researched for over 30 years. In the beginning, says the USP professor, condoms became synonymous with HIV, or dirty things, which made it difficult to spread.
“It is not uncommon for the greatest symbol of prevention to be confused with the disease itself”, says Paiva. “In the case of the mask, we had an ideological association with those who denied the virus.”
She mentions episodes from the beginning of the pandemic in which supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) attacked health professionals. There were also several cases of aggression against anyone who asked someone to wear a mask.
For her, although this interpretation is not dominant, there is still a dispute over narratives, due in part to the discomfort caused by the mask. “It takes practice, practice. You have to learn how to put it on, take it off, discard it. It’s like a condom.”
The risk, she says, is to resume the stigma of those who need the mask. “People with comorbidities, who are more susceptible, may feel unauthorized to use them. And the opposite should occur, a stimulus to use, a free distribution of good quality equipment.”
In the Covid pandemic, however, governments hesitated in the first months, and the WHO (World Health Organization) itself was slow to recommend the use of the accessory by the entire population.
The entity at first said that masks should be reserved for health professionals, in part for fear of lack of equipment for those on the front line. The generalized indication only took place in June.
A month earlier, the government of São Paulo had made it mandatory and, in April, the Ministry of Health, then under the care of Luiz Henrique Mandetta, had recommended its use.
In an article published on the platform Frontiers in Public Health, Lucia Martinelli and colleagues observed that, in some Asian countries, there was no need to impose the use of masks, and there is no need to provide for fines for those who do not wash their hands. It is a matter of habit.
Some clothing brands have bet on the westernization of masks and their advancement in the market for designer items. “We will no longer leave the house without them, as has been done in Asia for a long time”, said in May 2020 the stylist Thomaz Azulay, 33, of the carioca brand The Paradise.
Martinelli’s article also draws attention to the concrete effects of the mask as a symbol, in addition to the protection it offers as a barrier to the circulation of the virus. Some studies have shown that its use is associated with greater distancing in social interactions. It’s as if facial equipment serves as a warning sign of danger.
Michelle Fernandez, a researcher at the Institute of Political Science at UnB (University of Brasília), reinforces this point. “Seeing the mask makes the pandemic very present,” she says.
Hence the rush of some politicians to make its use more flexible. “My impression is that this is a guideline so that we seem to live in the closest pre-pandemic period”, says Fernandez, remembering that this is an election year.
In São Paulo, Doria announced the release during the program “Brasil Urgente” (Band), by presenter José Luiz Datena, pre-candidate for the Senate on the ticket headed by the PSDB in São Paulo.
For Fernandez, this sense of normality is false, as other countries register new increases in the number of cases.
Experts heard by sheet state that it is very premature to allow the use of masks in closed places, because of the circulation of the new sub-variant of the omicron, BA.2. There are studies that suggest that it may be up to 40% more transmissible than the previous lineage.
Ana Claudia Farranha, professor of law at UnB and researcher at the Center for Advanced Studies in Government and Public Administration, criticizes the authorities’ attitude in the face of a disease that has waves. “Governments ended up giving up a collective strategy in the name of individual decisions.”
This tends to be an additional problem in countries where there has been a very clear ideological divide around mask use. Brazil and the United States are clear examples, where Bolsonaro and the now ex-president Donald Trump stimulated denialism.
“The mask also carried this dimension of political guidelines. Those who wear it are progressive, those who don’t are conservative. It’s as if the mask left the health context to go to the political context, to express positions”, says Farranha.
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