More and more countries ordering the use of masks during covid-19. In Norway and the other Nordic countries, the health authorities do not recommend using masks. Why is it that the same health and fashion knowledge are interpreted so differently? Can we add to the debate by seeing the face mask as a garment and not as a medical device? Certainly, the covering of the face is prohibited by laws for religious garments in many of the countries that now prohibit use of masks. The covering of the face has many different functions, and the resistance to it can similarly be founded in aesthetics, ideology and tradition — as much as medicine.

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