Last week, the World Health Organization released new guidelines that kids under the age of 5 shouldn’t have to wear masks during the pandemic. That said, there’s a silly pee meme that’s circulating on social media we think could be useful to explain to young kids why it’s important we wear face masks when we leave home.
The meme, posted by Harvard infectious diseases epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch on Twitter, tries to simplify and break down the importance of wearing masks with “The Urine Test”. It’s broken up into 3 steps that even kids will understand:
- If we all run around naked and someone pees on you, you get wet right away.
- If you are wearing pants, some pee will get through – but not as much, so you are better protected.
- If the guy who pees is also wearing pants, the pee stays with him and you do not get wet.
Yes, we know it’s a weird analogy, but we also know how much young kids love hearing silly things, and sometimes it’s those things that make them laugh that they remember and learn from. We’re betting this pee explanation might just stick!
I have always thought that analogies were helpful in #scicomm and wondered if I went overboard with them when talking to reporters. But I feel the presence of an (anonymous) superstar in analogy-based scicomm when I see this example. pic.twitter.com/e9KJhu0TZC
— Marc Lipsitch (@mlipsitch) May 2, 2020
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