Dödligt virus från Kina orsakar panik (SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19)

Japanese wear masks when feeling sick as a courtesy to stop any sneezes from landing on other people. Japanese women mask their faces on days when they don’t have time to put on makeup. Philippine motorcycle riders wear masks to deflect vehicular exhausts in heavy traffic. In Taiwan, citizens say masks keep their faces warm in the winter and offer a sense of protection from air pollution, including any airborne germs.

Masks have become so popular that some manufacturers make them purely for fashionable use, with no protective function.

“In Asia it’s a bigger thing to be wearing the mask in Asia because it’s already ingrained in their culture to do it under other circumstances a lot more than here in the United States,” said Bradley Sutton, an American who once lived in Japan.