Woman spotted wearing plastic water bottle as mask in Vancouver International Airport

In the wake of the novel coronavirus outbreak making its way out of Wuhan and Asia and into countries as far as Canada, people are taking drastic measures to avoid the virus–apparently, some more than most.

A Facebook post originally put up by one Lynne Carter on Tuesday (Jan 28) featured photos of a woman in Vancouver International Airport wearing a plastic water container on her head as a make-shift mask. It was captioned: “The latest anti-virus shields made with old water jugs”.

In the photos, which made its way around social media, the woman was clearly seen to be wearing a mask within the bottle, which she used as some sort of extra protection around her face. In the photo with her facing backwards, her ponytail is seen to be protruding out of a hole cut into the plastic bottle.

According to Mothership, a recent statement made by Peking University respiratory specialist Wang Guangfa, a “lack of eye protection” may have played a part in the woman’s decision. Photos of other people wearing the same kind of make-shift masks in other countries have been circulating on social media as well.

The Canadian Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) issued a statement that it does not encourage people to use such make-shift contraptions to protect themselves from the coronavirus. They have, however, advised people to observe proper hygiene and take sanitary precautions in order to reduce their chances of getting infected–including the frequent washing of hands and to avoid touching the eyes, nose, and mouth, as well as keeping a distance from people who are sick.

In another article, Monika Wu, president of the China Hubei Association of Vancouver, said that many of their 1,000-member team in the Lower Mainland have friends and family in the ground-zero zone of Wuhan.

Though she shared that, much to their relief, no one with relations to the Vancouver community has died in the outbreak, the association as a whole is still deeply concerned about the well-being of everyone’s families back in Wuhan. “None of us have been able sleep well for at least a week,” she said.

However, with the name “Wuhan” now automatically being linked with words such as “virus” and “outbreak,” Ms. Wu calls the generalized fear of people from Wuhan uncalled for. “Not everyone from Wuhan is infected. I’ve seen a few instances where people see us and automatically think we carry the virus, and that’s wholly unnecessary. It’s not helpful… Everyone’s interest is the same in this situation, so let’s be supportive of one another as we try to work our way out of this.” -/TISG