Coronachan has withdrawn but people still wear masks here in Italy, often as a fashion accessory. I hate the mask. Perhaps in time people will choose to wear the mask at all hours, even when the government admit there is no further risk of contagion.

I readily imagine a future where everyone wears the mask, all the time. What special etiquette and caution must attend the removal, to eat and drink, to kiss. How to die in a mask. A city of men & women who wear increasingly decorative masks, ingeniously adorned & festooned; and then there will come the time when the masked citizens adopt a sponsor, when Audi or Bacardi or Siemens will pay people to wear a branded mask, when one can make a living walking about all day with a corporate insignia covering one’s mouth.