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Where is the masked baby now I ask ye (Photo: Twitter / additional design Toby Morris)
Where is the masked baby now I ask ye (Photo: Twitter / additional design Toby Morris)

SocietyJuly 5, 2022

The masked Air NZ baby is the hero we need

Where is the masked baby now I ask ye (Photo: Twitter / additional design Toby Morris)
Where is the masked baby now I ask ye (Photo: Twitter / additional design Toby Morris)

An image of a masked-up baby on an Air New Zealand flight went viral over the weekend. Stewart Sowman-Lund has questions.

Gotham has Batman, Metropolis has Superman – now New Zealand has The Mask.

A figure of such mystique that nobody has been able to identify them. 

It is also a baby. 

An image of a masked child, held in the arms of a parent onboard an Air New Zealand flight, went viral after it was shared online over the weekend. But it wasn’t the fact this baby was wearing a mask that sent the internet into such a flurry. No, it was the way the mask was being worn: covering at least half the face and with two little eye holes cut out. Sort of like a masquerade mask but uniquely for the Covid-19 era. 


The image of the child appears to have first shown up on the Reddit forum r/NewZealand. From there, it travelled to Instagram, and then to Twitter where it was posted by the page “images that MIGHT be cursed”. Cursed or not, I was intrigued. Should we all be cutting out little circles in our masks? What is The Mask hiding? Is this better than putting emojis over children to protect their identity? And did anyone else mistakenly think the hat of the man in front was being worn by the baby?

After cropping up on the Herald last night, the image attracted its fair share of both wonder and concern from readers. While many were simply in awe of the fashion statement being made, others expressed worry that the mask might not be offering much Covid protection on such a small child. So I went to Siouxsie Wiles, Covid communicator and microbiologist. I wanted to know: Is this how we should be protecting the next generation from the pandemic? 

Wiles told me she had never encountered such a mask before. “Wow!” she responded, almost as soon as the image landed in her inbox. Despite some frankly sanctimonious comments from the public around the mask’s safety and efficacy, Wiles didn’t give it a complete fail grade in terms of its ability to keep a child safe from Covid. “I guess it might reduce the amount of virus they breathe in a little,” she said. “But probably best to invest in masks designed for little ones.” (Technically, during the orange traffic light setting, children under 12 are exempt from wearing a mask). 

I still had more questions, so I tried to get in touch with the person who took the photo. According to the Herald, the photographer was a now-private Instagram user who was allegedly on the flight with The Mask – but I have my doubts as to whether they truly were responsible for the snap. A screenshot of their Instagram story was posted to Twitter on the afternoon of July 3 and it shows, very clearly, that they had splashed the word “mood” across The Mask’s forehead. That’s a detail missing from the image shared on Reddit and suggests editing of the original, rather than being the original. The Instagram user could not be reached for comment.

Additionally, the timing of the Twitter screenshot suggests the image was shared to Instagram around 6pm on July 2. The Reddit photo was posted at 1.53am on July 2, making it, definitively, the first documented evidence of The Mask. But I’m just asking questions. 

Either way, I received no response from the Reddit user and I can’t message a private Instagram account. The trail was going cold and I still wanted to know more. I searched through the image’s metadata for clues, but found nothing (except a suspicious mention of a child’s head). 

Proof of… something?

Nevertheless, based on the time of the Reddit post, I was able to deduce that the photo was taken sometime on July 1. And despite The Mask’s superhuman ability to maintain its secret identity, the photo left behind further telltale clues to its original Bruce Wayne-esque alter ego in the image. 

Take a look, first, at the bottom left. The Mask may be sneaky, but they weren’t sneaky enough to take their complimentary edition of the Kia Ora magazine with them after leaving the flight. The inflight magazine can be seen tucked into the back pocket of the airline seat. While the publication date is not visible, a quick search reveals this is the July 2022 edition of the mag. Assuming the July edition would not be distributed to plane seats until the start of the month, this backs up the claim this photo was taken no earlier than July 1. (Air NZ did not respond to my request for comment).

Proof! (Photo: Air NZ)

The fact the Kia Ora magazine can be so clearly spotted at the top of the seat back also suggests there is no in-flight entertainment screen on the chair. This is a domestic flight. You can also spot the TV used for the safety video and in-flight quiz tucked up into the ceiling of the aircraft. 

Not only is it a domestic flight, but it appears to be an Airbus A320 – the aircraft most commonly used on domestic routes between our biggest centres. And while no windows are visible in the picture, my bet is that this image was taken during daylight or evening hours. Nobody wants to fly with a baby during the night. (There also appears to be some natural light coming into the cabin).

Despite my investigation, I was no closer to any answers. Who was The Mask? What do they want? Are we safe? I may never know for sure. But I do know that in these confusing orange light, omicron-infused times – this is the hero New Zealand deserves, even if it’s not the one we need right now. 

Are you the baby? Reach me on stewart@thespinoff.co.nz

Keep going!
Only 17% of New Zealanders have an enduring power of attorney in place (Photo: Getty Images; additional design: Archi Banal)
Only 17% of New Zealanders have an enduring power of attorney in place (Photo: Getty Images; additional design: Archi Banal)

SocietyJuly 5, 2022

It’s never too early to get your affairs in order

Only 17% of New Zealanders have an enduring power of attorney in place (Photo: Getty Images; additional design: Archi Banal)
Only 17% of New Zealanders have an enduring power of attorney in place (Photo: Getty Images; additional design: Archi Banal)

Dementia cases are expected to double by 2050, yet very few New Zealanders have a plan should the time come when they can no longer manage their affairs.

For over a decade, Robin Wilson has supported loved ones living with dementia. As her mother’s power of attorney, the workplace wellness specialist was legally responsible for looking after her mum’s finances from 2010 until her death in 2017. Everyday tasks, like paying the bills or arranging rest home care, were made easier as she could show proof of the arrangement and make those decisions. It was a role Wilson and her family had planned for well before they received their mother’s dementia diagnosis. Since 2014, she has also helped support her husband and his sister as they manage the affairs of their own mother who lives with dementia. Should something happen to them, Wilson will succeed the pair as her mother-in-law’s attorney. 

You don’t have to live with a cognitive disorder to be forced to consider your future – an accident or serious illness can also leave people mentally incapable of managing their affairs. Yet it’s estimated that only 17% of New Zealanders have an enduring power of attorney (EPA), based on data from Public Trust. EPAs are crucial legal documents authorising someone to make decisions on another’s behalf about their finances and/or welfare. The responsibility is triggered when loved ones are deemed “mentally incapable” or not entirely competent to manage their affairs. Typically, people turn to those they most trust to fulfil the role, such as spouses and partners, children, siblings and close friends, but solicitors, accountants and trustee companies are other alternatives, especially if family members can’t act impartially or may be swayed by other relatives.

Wellness specialist Robin Wilson (Photo: Supplied)

Dementia, which an estimated 70,000 New Zealanders live with, may be one reason why a person eventually lacks capacity. Dementia is an umbrella term for symptoms associated with cognitive function that progressively deteriorates over time and is severe enough to interfere with daily life – think frequent loss of memory, difficulty concentrating, reasoning and perceiving, disorientation with time and place and changes in mood, behaviour and personality. The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease, which about two-thirds of people living with dementia have. There is no cure for dementia, and treatment via medication and lifestyle changes focuses more on slowing down symptoms or preventing their onset. People over 65 are typically most at risk, but early-onset dementia can affect people as young as 45. 

Forgetting where you put your car keys is normal. But forgetting where you are while driving on a motorway at 100km/h, and becoming frustrated at your disorientation, might suggest something more serious. That loss of memory is something Glenys Talivai, the chief executive of Public Trust, is going through with her 75-year-old father, who tried to renew his driver’s licence recently but failed the memory test. “For him, that was ‘one day I could drive, the next day I couldn’t and I now have a cognitive disease because that led to a diagnosis’,” she says. “It can happen quite quickly.”

By 2050, almost 170,000 New Zealanders, or nearly 3% of the population, are expected to be living with dementia – more than double the current number, according to Auckland University’s “Dementia Economic Impact Report 2020”. The number of Pākehā with dementia is expected to double, and cases among Māori, Pasifika and Asian-New Zealanders are forecast to triple. Already the disorder costs Aotearoa nearly $2.5b, including health and social care expenses, and unpaid care provided mostly by whānau. The bill will nearly top $6b by the middle of the century.

The value of EPAs and other life-planning documents like wills is the kind of thing most people don’t think about, “until all of a sudden I realise I need them, and I don’t have them”, says Talivai. “It is about looking into the future and thinking about ‘what would I want to have happened?’” Without EPAs in place, family members must turn to the Family Court for authorisation, a process that costs more money and adds stress to an already heightened situation. 

HEIDELBERG, GERMANY - MARCH 30: In this photo illustration a Old man has a family photo in his hands on March 30, 2022 in Heidelberg, Germany. (Photo Illustration by Ute Grabowsky/Getty Images)
Frequent memory loss is one of the symptoms associated with dementia (Photo: Getty Images)

Death, money and the future aren’t topics people like to talk about, Wilson says, even though “none of us is getting out of here alive”. Being an attorney isn’t for the light-hearted either. The wellness specialist remembers having difficult discussions with her sister, who was their mother’s welfare attorney, around the time her mother became really unwell. “We certainly knew that Mum didn’t want to be resuscitated – she was really clear about that… Where do you draw that line also around medication, withholding something when somebody’s in their last stages?” she says. “They’re big decisions.”

These kinds of decisions – can Dad make the call to place Mum in care if and when looking after her gets too much? Which of my children has my best interests at heart? What will happen if my whānau can’t agree? – are what Katrina Simmonds, a community liaison officer for Dementia Hawkes Bay, encourages people to consider now. In her experience supporting people living with dementia and their families, spouses and partners usually have each other as their EPAs – a sensible decision when they are in their 40s to 60s. But as parents age, their adult children might be better placed to take on the responsibility, given they have more time on their side, she says.

The charitable trust’s goal is to support, guide and educate people about living well with dementia. “It’s the disease that changes your person, it’s not them suddenly becoming a pain in the neck,” Simmonds says. “They’re not able to understand what you’re saying.” When discussions are had early and people are nominated, whānau can know “in their heart” the decision was made when their loved one was well. “If you do it early enough, that’s their wish and that’s who they chose to speak for them. That’s the right thing to do.”

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