“I’d like to keep it on, please.”
Netflix Philippines on Wednesday posted a still of American drag queen Valentina with a subtitle bearing these lines. It was captured from an episode of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.“
The streaming platform uploaded the post, with a face mask emoji as caption, amid reports that the government’s pandemic task force has proposed to ease face mask use outdoors in “low-risk settings.”
In the post, Valentina could be seen wearing a stylish mask on the reality competition series. She is directing the famous line to RuPaul Charles.
— Netflix Philippines (@Netflix_PH) September 7, 2022
The still is a reference to one of the controversial moments in the American drag race show, specifically its ninth season run in 2017.
One of its episodes featured a lip-sync face-off between Valentina and Nina Bo’nina Brown, where the former arrived with a fashionable face covering.
Valentina was performing midway when RuPaul stopped the music and told her to remove it for judging purposes since it was a lip-sync competition.
“I would like to keep it on, please,” Valentina told her.
“So I stopped this lip-sync for nothing,” RuPaul shot back.
The drag race show uploaded a clip of the moment in May 2021, amid the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic, in which face masks are essential.
On this day in 2️⃣0️⃣1️⃣7️⃣, @AllOfValentina gave us the mask inspo we NEVER knew we needed 😭✨ #DragRace pic.twitter.com/CpJC1TobHp
— RuPaul's Drag Race (@RuPaulsDragRace) May 19, 2021
Meanwhile, the still was uploaded by Netflix PH around the same time the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) bared its proposal to ease face mask use among the public.
The post was quote tweeted by a Pinoy Twitter user who commented, “Me at the end of the month because I’ve been forced to go to the office.”
On Wednesday, health department officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said that the task force has recommended the voluntary use of face masks outdoors in “low-risk settings” and only among “low-risk individuals.”
“Ni-liberalize natin ‘yung paggamit ng masks sa outdoors pero doon sa low-risk individuals and in low-risk settings, meaning hindi sila matanda, hindi sila immunocompromised. And low-risk setting, ibig sabihin, doon sa mga area na hindi matao at saka maayos po ang daloy ng hangin,” she said in a press briefing.
She stressed that the proposal is not yet a policy and that it would be piloted towards the last quarter of the year, provided there is an improvement in the country’s COVID-19 booster vaccination coverage.
The proposal comes after Cebu City’s executive order on easing face mask use gained buzz.
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