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the Chinese Imperial Court to stay in Harbin to study the pneu- monic plague, which stemmed from the fur trade14 of Siberian marmots. To counteract the spread, Wu designed a cotton and gauze face mask that15 wrapped around the face. Because the materials were readily available, production was easily scalable16. Despite being ridiculed by a French doctor17—today, of course, in propaganda films that ridicule similar, these “doctors” are more frequently known as “actors”—his design, plus strict travel regu- lations and limitations18 across Northeast China, saved countless lives when 60,000 already died19. Wu’s design was later widely used to combat The Spanish Flu of 1918.
Although they’d be demonstrably burned after the next mask evolution some decades later, it was actually the female bra that inspired the now famous N95 mask. In 1958, when Sara Little Turnbull, an editor turned product designer, was in a meeting with 3M’s gift wrap division20, she proposed a new mask
that could protect from ailments minus the need to adjust the nose clips and ties. Inspired by the cup of a bra21, the N95 mask had a rounded cup at the bottom with a tapered nose bridge and elastic ties.
It’s a privilege to have access to a face mask, particularly one that benefits from technological innovations. However, shortages are inevitable. Factories struggle to keep up with the demand for N95 masks, which are made with melt-blown fabric and costly
to produce. Rather than wait for factories to catch up, countless designers have been churning out new mask designs that are equally stylish, innovative, and protective. And regardless of our designer status or not, the sales of sewing machines has spiked22. An age-old artistic craft has reawakened. Despite the circum- stances of the last six months, there are many silver linings— whether they’re lined with brass, celluloid, silk, cotton, or soaked in a potent theriac mixture.
1Dutta, Taniya. “Pure Gold Coronavirus Face Mask Worth £4,000 Custom-Made for Businessman.” Mirror.2“In Anxious Jakarta, Box of Face Masks Worth More than a Gram of Gold .” The Jakarta Post, 8 Feb. 2020.
3Franck, Thomas. “Coronavirus Masks Could Become a $9 Billion Market, Benefiting These Stocks, KeyBanc Says.” CNBC, CNBC, 30 June 2020.
4Times, Global. “The Evolution of Face Masks.” Global Times, 12 Feb. 2020.
5(see above)
6Lovett, Brian. “Sick or Silk: How Silkworms Spun the Germ Theory of Disease.” ASM.org, American Society for Microbiology, 6 Dec. 2019. 7Blakemore, Erin. “Why Plague Doctors Wore Those Strange Beaked Masks.” National Geographic, National Geographic, 12 Mar. 2020.
8(see above)
9(see above)
10Martin, Alex. “The History behind Japan’s Love of Face Masks.” The Japan Times, The Japan Times LTD, 4 July 2020.
11Spooner, John L. “History of Surgical Face Masks .” AORN Journal, vol. 5, no. 1, Jan. 1967, p. 76.
12(see above)
13Postrel, Virginia. “Pandemics Come And Go But Medical Masks Are Eternal.” Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, 10 Apr. 2020.
14Toh, Han Shih. “Lessons for Coronavirus from Chinese-Malaysian Plague Fighter.” South China Morning Post, South China Morning Post, 1 Feb. 2020. 15Wilson, Mark. “The Untold Origin Story of the N95 Mask.” Fast Company, Fast Company, 24 Mar. 2020.
16(see above)
17(see above)
18Wai, Wong Chun. “Wu Lien-Teh: Malaysia’s Little-Known Plague Virus Fighter.” The Star Online, The Star, 11 Feb. 2020.
19(see 14)
20(see 15)
21Abdelfatah, Rund, and Ramtin Arablouei. “How One Woman Inspired The Design For The N95 Mask.” NPR, NPR, 21 May 2020.
22Koncius, Jura. “The Pandemic-Fueled Demand for Masks Has Reignited Interest in an Age-Old Skill.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 1 July 2020.
THE WORRIER GENE RHYMES WITH COVID-19
DNA and Healing Nutrition for the Artistically Inclined
Written by Gurjot Narwal
This is happening, and it really, really sucks. Everyone is experiencing COVID-related stress. In fact, The World Economic Forum has called the lockdown the “largest psychological exper- iment”. Atop living through this bizarre and cruel experiment, performing artists have been hit in devastating ways. The travel, studio sessions, and networking that drive collaboration and cre- ation have all but screeched to a halt. With social distancing and most events being cancelled or delayed, there’s no compensation but also no psychological reward. Online performances pale in compensational comparison, and finding new and lucrative ways to connect with audiences is diffuse yet saturated to a point of stressful burnout. Finally, the COVID-19 disease itself has caused numerous artists to become ill and even die; Tony-nominated Nick Cordero died at 44 while battling the disease.
Consider suffering by the numbers:
·4.8 billion lost in revenue across the national arts industries
·62% of artists in the United States are unemployed because of the novel coronavi- rus, COVID-19, and the shutdowns the pandemic has caused.
·36% of average Americans say the coronavirus pandemic is having a serious impact on their mental health.
·73% of independent musicians have experienced stress, anxiety or depression “in relation to their music creation.” This statistic was published before COVID-19.
New York-based clinical psychologist and musician Dr. Ezra Feinberg recently told The Los Angeles Times, “It’s not even really about, ‘How do I keep going with this’ as much as it is, ‘How do I figure out a way to continue to live, to live in my apartment, to put food on the table?’”
Artists are not only unique in their talents, but biochemically as well. The genes we are born with blend with the gene expres- sion controlled by our environment (nutrition, exercise, lifestyle, socio-economic). Even identical twins are very different based on their lifestyle. From a DNA perspective there’s something called COMT, or the “worrier gene” that can also affect pain perception, or feeling more pain due to physical and emotional stressors.
The COMT gene acts as a sort of brain janitor, cleaning up the spaces between brain cells after chemicals called neurotransmit-
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