Just 10 months after Covid-19 emerged, another stranger disease has appeared and started spreading across the world.

This one, though, is even more baffling than the coronavirus.

Rational adults above the age of 21 one by one are losing the ability to understand the phrase “wear a mask when you go outside” even if it’s delivered in their mother tongue.

Scientists can’t explain the phenomenon and the authorities are just annoyed by it.

What’s more startling is that even the ones who seem to understand it get enraged when they’re told to do it.

Xenophobic Maskless Man Drew Flak for Asking Another Person, ‘Which Country Are You From?’

A video of an exchange between two passengers on a bus has made the rounds on social media.

The video was uploaded to the Facebook page All Singapore Stuff on 9 Oct.

In the video, a man seated at the back of a bus can be seen having a heated argument with another passenger off-screen.

The man has a mask around his ears, but it’s not covering his nose or his mouth.

He might as well stuff it in his shoe, it’d be just as effective.

The maskless man, who was presumably upset at being told to wear his mask properly, mumbles almost incoherently, “Which country are you from?”.

This comment is, of course, xenophobic. What does their nationality have to do with their right to ask you to put on a mask?

The other man replies that he’s Singaporean in an indignant tone, to which the maskless man says:

“You Singaporean? So what? Eh, I’m- a Singapore (sic) okay”.

“I’m also a local”, the other man replies.

The other man then pleads with the maskless man to put his mask on properly, shouting “protect yourself!”

“Wear your mask, please,” he tells the maskless man, but is ignored.

Does a mask really protect you, though?

Mask Up For Others

If you cast your mind back to March, residents were actually discouraged from wearing masks if they weren’t unwell, because there was a worry that they’d run out, and frontline workers would have to wrap FairPrice plastic bags around their faces.

But then the gahmen made a u-turn on this stand, and encouraged residents to wear masks when they went out, eventually making it mandatory.

Why?

Well, researchers discovered that even asymptomatic Covid-19 cases – those without symptoms – could still spread the virus.

They may not cough or sneeze as much, but they could still spread the virus through the seemingly innocent act of talking, something most of us love to do.

This is why wearing masks has become mandatory in many countries, as it’s been shown to significantly reduce the spread of the coronavirus.

Wearing a mask doesn’t protect you from contracting the disease, though, because your eyes are exposed, meaning the virus can enter in one of two ways:

1. A maskless man on the bus coughs into your eyes when you ask him to wear a mask
2. A maskless man on the bus coughs on your hands, and you later touch your eyes, nose, or mouth

But if everyone wears masks, then we’d all have a higher degree of protection from the disease.

In fact, one study in the US showed that wearing masks is actually more effective than social distancing when it comes to reducing the spread of the coronavirus.

In New York City, for example, after mask-wearing was made compulsory on 16 Apr, the number of infections reduced by over 66,000 from Apr 16 to 9 May.

While the rest of America saw its daily infections rising, New York City saw its infection rate drop by 3% daily.

So, the next time someone reminds you to wear your mask properly on the bus, please, just do it.

If you’re still unconvinced and want to leave your mask below your chin, watch this video to the end (and also subscribe to our YouTube channel for more informative videos, please!):