Over the course of the COVID pandemic, a growing consensus has emerged among researchers that masks are at least somewhat helpful — and perhaps quite effective — at suppressing the spread of the coronavirus.
But in the United States, some have chafed at the idea of taking on a small inconvenience to help the public health effort. Anti-mask protests have flared up nationwide, some with ugly racist undertones. Many Americans have thrown tantrums in public after being asked to wear masks in stores. And that’s all been happening, of course, as the United States’ COVID outbreak has become one of the most severe in the world.
That’s what inspired YouTuber Allen Pan to create a whimsical gadget: a gun that fires masks directly onto its targets’ faces.
