The Spanish approach to face masks

We self-critical British should never forget that other nations are pretty crazy too. I write this from Andalusia, Spain; and when it comes to cockeyed rules for limiting the spread of Covid-19, the Spanish offer us some stiff competition. One is reminded of the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. Very gradually (I’d guess) over the months during which Spaniards have been subject to a face-mask regime, people seem to have lost touch with the reasons the rules were laid down in the first place. Practices have simply been absorbed into popular culture, their origins now ignored, forgotten or never understood.

We landed in Almeria from Manchester last week and, wearing our face masks like other Ryanair passengers, picked up our hire car and headed out on to the motorway for the hour-long drive to our destination town, passing through empty semi-desert and seeing nobody until we got there. Night fell as we drove in. Entering the brightly lit town felt like coming from outer space into a new planet, its streets, restaurants and bars busy, peopled by creatures very like us, yet strangely different. We peered out of our car windows, trying to take it in.

They were wearing masks in the open air and taking them off to go into enclosed spaces! Not everybody was obeying what appeared to be common practice, but most were. Thus began our study, which continues as I write this seated outside a bar in a small village not far from the Mediterranean.

The first rule is that almost everyone carries a face mask at all times. Most use the simple white or pale blue fabric mask with a wire through the top edge to help grip the bridge of the nose. Next, then, to the circumstances in which they put it on.