The year of the mask

During 2020, mask-wearing has come to symbolise what unites and divides us.

(Source: Sme - Jozef Jakubčo)

The words of the year for 2020, according to the big dictionaries, are ‘pandemic’ and ‘lockdown’. But it is the surgical mask that provides tangible proof of how our lives have changed this year. It has been with us throughout, illustrating the changes and development in attitudes towards the reality in which we live.

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A simple piece of personal protective equipment that you would never previously have spared a thought for, and only seen on the faces of medical staff or perhaps your manicurist, the mask became the ever-present item that really brought the pandemic home to many in Slovakia.

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