Credit: The Mega Agency

Her fans didn’t appreciated half-hearted safety measures.

Okay, let’s go over this again, because apparently people keep forgetting. The purpose of a double-layered face mask during a pandemic is to keep microparticles from entering your mouth from the outside, as well as keep the particles from your mouth inside. If your mask only has one layer of fabric, or worse, has holes in it, the entire system goes kaput. Everyone get it now? Great, now if someone could just pass this on to Lana Del Rey, we’ll be golden.

Over the weekend, musician Lana Del Rey appeared at a Barnes and Noble in Los Angeles to promote her new poetry collection, Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass. As has become customary of the pandemic age, attendance at the event mandated social distancing and face coverings. When Del Rey showed up for the event, her fans were excited, but many immediately noticed a problem with her mask: it was mesh.

Lana Del Rey meets with fans at surprise book signing event for her collection of poetry, #VBBOTG, in LA. 📚 pic.twitter.com/t2H7hYAvhz

— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) October 3, 2020

As we just explained, mesh masks, being covered in holes and not even double-layered, do effectively nothing to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Del Rey herself has not commented on the matter, but her sister, Chuck Grant, chimed in on the matter, saying that Del Rey had tested negative for COVID-19 recently and did her best throughout the event to remain at proper social distance. Some fans have disputed the latter claim on Twitter, posting pictures of her standing right next to and touching fans.

In all likelihood, this was not a deliberate act of malice on Del Rey’s part. Considering how sparkly her mask was, it was likely just an ill-advised fashion statement and/or a means to prevent her voice from being muffled during her poetry reading. Even so, her fans are upset, and have asked her to be more considerate next time.