Masks & Politics: A Discussion of American Beliefs
Photo Credit: Mika Baumeister
Courtesy of Unsplash
You’ve heard it once; you’ve heard it a million times.
“Wear a mask.”
We’re in a new world today, one where the risk of contracting and spreading COVID-19 is present in almost every daily activity. Wearing a mask has become a common preventive measure, a simple action that better keeps ourselves and others safe. We won’t debate the science behind masks; many reputable sources have concrete evidence showing that masks slow the spread of the virus. This includes the AAMC — pre-meds, this is for you — as well as the CDC, Stanford Medicine, and UC Health.
The science has proven: masks work. Yet, wearing one still remains a hot topic. Why is this? One common, yet founded answer is politics. Said best by Tara McKelvy of BBC news, “a small piece of cloth has incited a nationwide feud about public health, civil liberties, and personal freedom”. In this article, I’ll cover America’s long history with freedom, politics, and the influence of our leaders.
For some of us, it’s been quite a while since our last US History course. Yet, I hope you all remember just how much Americans hate being told what to do. American colonists threw a tea party in the Boston harbor to protest unjust taxation. Scrapping state rights and imposing slave emancipation led to an all-out war. And once upon a time, the idea of normalizing seatbelts (yes, seatbelts!) started an uproar despite proven studies.
America was built on the concept of liberty, so backlash on government orders is almost expected. Yet, not every American is against masks — and not all Americans push back on every government order either. The difference between government actions we support and those we don’t lies in our own personal beliefs and biases. This is where politics come into play.
There’s a case to be made about when masks became politicized. Recent months have shown that many who fall right on the political spectrum or otherwise support former President Trump are also anti-maskers. In contrast, left-leaning Americans tend to wear masks. Our stats courses tell us that correlation doesn’t imply causation, but in the case of masks, political views may actually be cause for the divide.
It’s no secret that former President Trump discredited the use of masks early on. You won’t find a quote from him claiming outright that masks don’t work. . . but you’ll be hard pressed to find a quote where he specifically endorses them either (for your browsing pleasure, here’s a compilation of Trump’s earliest statements on masks from the New York Times). Yet, his inaction speaks volumes on its own. President Trump seems to circle around the validity of masks; specifically, his doubt stems from skepticism of the COVID-19 virus and the pandemic’s severity. The same can be said of anti-maskers; if the pandemic isn’t real, there’s no reason to wear a mask. Therefore, mandating masks is pointless and infringes on individual liberties and human interaction without reason.
From the outside, it may be easy to say that anti-maskers are “brainwashed” by the former president, but how much weight do the words and actions of our leaders really carry? I raise the idea that anti-maskers were always anti-maskers; backing from President Trump simply gave a name and a foundation to their cause. It’s one thing to privately resent a government mandate and another to have your own president blatantly disregard an order. Without support from President Trump, I have to doubt that anti-maskers would have escalated to the lengths we see now.
We’re now faced with the age old question. . . which came first: the chicken or the egg? Did Trump supporters become anti-maskers under his influence or were anti-maskers drawn to President Trump because of his aligning views? I believe there’s no clear answer here, so don’t race to your stats textbooks or coding software just yet. The correlation between anti-maskers and political stance is founded, but there may be too many confounding factors at play to formulate a perfect equation. Even so, the ideas behind freedom, politics, and masks are deeply intriguing, so I encourage you all to discuss with your peers and family.
To close off, I’ll say this:
especially as summer approaches, stay cautious, stay safe ‒ and once again ‒ wear a mask!