Just to add bit of context - Both Slovakia and Czech Republic have a longstanding DIY cultural tradition. During the communist times, what you could get in shops was very limited so people had to be creative to craft or modify whatever they needed.
Right now, the masks are in very short supply and preferably focused on health professionals - in both countries, the mask are pretty much mandatory everywhere outside of your home and the reason for that is to keep down the rate at which you can infect others - basically we expect everyone to think about themselves as "having it" and trying to prevent infecting others. To keep up with the "having masks requirement" and low supplies, every able person who can sew has been called to help with the shortage - so literally every village, town and city is internally producing these fabric made masks, that usually have a pocket inside in which you can put some kind of filter (made out of various other everyday things - like quality vacuum cleaner bags or filters and similar). So while she tries to keep it fashionable, this is not some kind of "statement" - its happening everywhere here. Czech Minister of Healthcare for example - https://cdn.xsd.cz/resize/4c49449d51ec35f89296d08b9d44225f_extract=0,0,1919,1080_resize=510,287_.jpg
EDIT: Just to expand a bit more on this - both czech republic and slovakia are pretty crazy in terms of what they can locally produce (seriously resourceful people, good company to stay around in case of total apocalypse) - besides the global effort to produce fabric masks, there are several local biotech companies and labs working on vaccine variations, 3D printers mostly grouped around Prusa are trying to crowd-mass-produce various small pieces of protective equipment and mask parts, Universities are coming with new forms of protection (mentioned full-face masks from plastic bottles and fabric - https://d39-a.sdn.cz/d_39/c_img_E_N/PDAUb.jpeg) and producing it locally etc. In my town, school children are organizing themselves into groups which are going out to buy groceries for seniors and help them out with isolation and other activities, that can help protect the most vulnerable ones. Really proud to see this kind of group and community effort.
MaggieBarnes on March 22nd, 2020 at 16:40 UTC »
Thank you for attending this year’s reaping. May the odds be forever in your favor.
tk306 on March 22nd, 2020 at 17:16 UTC »
Starting to look a little Handmaid's Tale ish
venomae on March 22nd, 2020 at 20:11 UTC »
Just to add bit of context - Both Slovakia and Czech Republic have a longstanding DIY cultural tradition. During the communist times, what you could get in shops was very limited so people had to be creative to craft or modify whatever they needed.
Right now, the masks are in very short supply and preferably focused on health professionals - in both countries, the mask are pretty much mandatory everywhere outside of your home and the reason for that is to keep down the rate at which you can infect others - basically we expect everyone to think about themselves as "having it" and trying to prevent infecting others. To keep up with the "having masks requirement" and low supplies, every able person who can sew has been called to help with the shortage - so literally every village, town and city is internally producing these fabric made masks, that usually have a pocket inside in which you can put some kind of filter (made out of various other everyday things - like quality vacuum cleaner bags or filters and similar). So while she tries to keep it fashionable, this is not some kind of "statement" - its happening everywhere here. Czech Minister of Healthcare for example - https://cdn.xsd.cz/resize/4c49449d51ec35f89296d08b9d44225f_extract=0,0,1919,1080_resize=510,287_.jpg
EDIT: Just to expand a bit more on this - both czech republic and slovakia are pretty crazy in terms of what they can locally produce (seriously resourceful people, good company to stay around in case of total apocalypse) - besides the global effort to produce fabric masks, there are several local biotech companies and labs working on vaccine variations, 3D printers mostly grouped around Prusa are trying to crowd-mass-produce various small pieces of protective equipment and mask parts, Universities are coming with new forms of protection (mentioned full-face masks from plastic bottles and fabric - https://d39-a.sdn.cz/d_39/c_img_E_N/PDAUb.jpeg) and producing it locally etc. In my town, school children are organizing themselves into groups which are going out to buy groceries for seniors and help them out with isolation and other activities, that can help protect the most vulnerable ones. Really proud to see this kind of group and community effort.
EDIT2: Group web for distributing the face masks to anyone who needs - https://www.damerousky.cz/