Radio host Kate Langbroek urges Australians to wear face masks

Kate Langbroek has implored Australians to wear face masks as the coronavirus pandemic worsens. 

In an editorial for the Herald Sun on Thursday, the 54-year-old radio host spoke about the importance of covering up after witnessing the effects of the virus in Italy.

Kate explained that what was supposed to be a two-week lockdown lasted for four months, as the European country struggled to get a handle on the situation.

She said she knew five people who had contracted the virus, with one person dying, while the others were all hospitalised.

Describing the extreme measures Italy put into place to combat the pandemic as ‘hard’, Kate acknowledged that ‘it was also effective’.   

‘I wear a mask because, once you get used to the extra level of preparation in leaving the house (wallet/phone/mask) it is a relatively small price to pay for the freedoms I was denied for four months,’ she wrote.

Kate said she could understand why some Aussies were ‘resentful’ about being made to wear a face mask, believing it’s due to ‘an underlying lack of faith in government’.

But she insisted the importance of covering up amid the pandemic went beyond politics.   

‘Right here, right now – my right not to wear a mask is not the hill I am prepared to die on,’ she said.

‘And I don’t expect anyone else to die on it, either.’

While she’s currently based in Bologna, Italy with her husband of 17 years, Peter Lewis, and the couple’s four children, Kate briefly returned to Melbourne last month with her 16-year-old son, Lewis.

After completing their 14-day hotel quarantine, Kate revealed they had returned to visit her father, Jan, who is gravely ill.