First published by Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper
Globally, the rise of “me culture” and “me culture shaming” have been blamed for people refusing to wear masks, despite regulations by governments.
As a second wave of coronavirus infections hits South Africa, psychologist Garret Barnwell argues that the country needs to find different and creative ways to talk to people about wearing masks.
In the Covid-19 democracy survey, conducted by the University of Johannesburg and the Human Sciences Research Council between April and September, people were asked whether, and how regularly, they wore a face mask when leaving their homes.
Full compliance was low (37%) early in April during the initial weeks of Level 5 lockdown. By the end of April, compliance increased to 50% of adults. The practice peaked and stabilised at just over 70% in July, August and September. Among the other 30% of adults, 20% said they wore a mask “most of the time”, and about 7% said they wore a mask “some of the time”. Only 2% said they never (or not often) wore a mask and 1% chose not to say.