People in Latin America debate the use of face masks

House keys, wallet or purse, mobile phone and .... oh, yes: face mask. Reluctantly for many, but also inexorably in face of a dely invisible enemy, small rectangles of flimsy yet live-saving tissue have in mere months joined list of don't-leave-home-without-m items for billions around world.

Not since humans invented shoes or underwear has a single item of dress caught on so widely and quickly from Mexico City to Melbourne, Beijing to Bordeaux, spanning borders, cultures, generations and sexes with almost same Earth-shaking speed as coronavirus that has killed more than 600,000 and infected more than 15 million.

But rarely, also maybe never, has anything else worn by humans sparked such furious discord and politicking.

As such, like or human habits, mask has become a mirror on humanity.

Across Latin America, like rest of world, wearing of masks has divided opinion.

Some, like Mexican housewife Paulina Ramirez, feel wearing one should be mandatory.

"People who don't use m should be fined," she said.

Nineteen-year-old student Graziele Vieira lost her great-grandmor to COVID-19 and puts it down to people were not wearing masks for reason she caught virus.

"You can infect anor person in dition to yourself. We need to take care of lives of ors beside your own."

But ors aren't so keen to cover up.

Speaking from Brazilian city Rio de Janeiro, one of countries which has been hardest hit by pandemic, writer Dalila Kopp said she didn't recommend wearing masks.

"I would not recommend (to wear a mask) because carbon gas (people breathing ir own carbon gas) acidifies lungs and blood, and that becomes an open door to get any or kind of disease."

Also muddying and fueling global debate has been mixed messaging from government leers who flip-flopped on utility of masks and vised against ir public use when stocks were so lacking that health workers cared for sick and dying without equate protection.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obror said he would immediately wear a mask if it helped get country's economy back on track.

"But it's not like that," he ded. "I follow recommendations of doctors, of scientists."