Face mask

This face mask materialises the widespread practice of making masks during the Covid-19 crisis. It is an excellent example of a community response to events, as people took health matters into their own hands regardless of official advice. It is also a creative response as people sought to process the magnitude of what was happening through the process of making.

Covid-19 is a type of coronavirus, which can pass from person to person by droplets.

Masks4All

This mask was made by Melinda Lattimore and is accompanied by paper instructions written by Dr Sophie Febery who launched the Masks4All movement in New Zealand in late March 2020. Dr Febery works at the Methven Medical Centre. Volunteers in Methven (including Lattimore) experimented with making different versions of face masks with over 200 distributed to rest home and supermarket workers in March/April. They set up stalls at supermarkets to give away masks along with instructions on how to keep them clean. The aim was to normalise mask wearing. Dr Febery notes that this particular style with pleats and wire was the most used, and was probably the best as ‘it’s adjustable over the nose and very comfortable’.

Several researchers and health experts (including Professors Nick Wilson and Michael Baker, and Doctors Sophie Febery, Ling Chan and Amanda Kvalsvig) have advised from the beginning of the pandemic that mask-wearing is an effective public health measure when combined with hand-washing and physical distancing. They propose the use of cloth masks to both protect the general public and to help reserve medical masks for healthcare professionals. Research has indicated that a mask made from cloth can be effective in reducing the spread of droplets, even when damp. This mask is double-layered from cotton with a piece of wire sewn in to mould to the bridge of the nose.

Mask debates

The face mask is one of the iconic symbols of the pandemic. Attitudes towards mask-wearing and the meaning of masks have shifted as Covid-19 increases around the world, as political movements intersect with the pandemic, and as health authorities increasingly understand the virus and how it spreads.

However, mask-wearing was slow to be adopted in New Zealand. When Covid-19 first became apparent, many thought that wearing face masks was a sign that wearers were unwell. Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon urged people to be aware of the differing reasons people wear masks and not to assume people were sick - in order to avoid stigmatizing people.

Earlier in the pandemic the World Health Organisation did not recommend masks for the general public, but shifted its advice in mid-2020 as evidence became clear that wearing masks helps prevent the spread of Covid-19. Countries which adopted mask wearing earlier on were able to bring transmission and death rates under control. Several countries and jurisdictions with high community transmissions require mandatory mask wearing, with heavy penalties for failure to do so.

Official advice from New Zealand’s Ministry of Health also shifted from not supporting the widespread use of face masks to recommending that ‘all households prepare for a possible further outbreak of Covid-19 by securing non-medical grade face masks for each household member’ to reduce the risk of infected of infected people spreading Covid-19 (6 Aug 2020).

Masks became mandatory on public transport from 30 August to 7 October 2020 (in Auckland), and from 30 August to 21 September in the rest of New Zealand.