At the beginning of the pandemic, Amy, a 48-year-old mother of two from Ohio, was scared. When the government started recommending people wear masks, she not only complied, she posed Masks for others. "I was like, oh, that's scary, that could be really bad," she said.
But by the time Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced the state would be extending its lockdown through the month of May, she had nailed it. Pandemic over or not, she was done. After that, Amy became vehemently anti-mask and began doubting if the coronavirus was really that big of a deal. Her mother followed her on Facebook for her "angry posts" about masks, and she hasn't heard from her in a month. She carries a homemade mask, just in case, but she doesn't believe in it.
"It's a violation of my freedom I think, and I also think they just don't work," Amy said. "A lot says it works, but some doesn't."
Masks have become an extremely heated point of contention during the Covid-19 outbreak. Viral videos of people breaking down over masks are commonplace, and in many parts of the country it's not uncommon for strangers to speak out publicly about confronting the issue. A small but vocal segment of the population has dug in and ignored the mounting evidence that masks are making a difference in fighting the coronavirus. For those who believe that at least wearing a mask can't hurt, is it's hard not to develop hostility towards those who refuse. The question I keep hearing from pro-mask friends and families is always the same: what do these people think?
In the past few weeks, I've spoken to nearly a dozen people who describe themselves as anti-masks to find out exactly that. What I've found is that there's certainly a wide spectrum of reasons -- some find it Annoyed by wearing a mask or just not convinced they work and others have gone down a rabbit hole of conspiracies often involving vaccines, big pharma, YouTube etc. Bill Gates. One man told me he had a Wears mask when entering store to be polite.A woman has been kicked out of a Menards store for refusing to wear a mask amid what she calls the 'Covid scam garbage'.
But there are also many similarities. Most of the people I spoke to noticed the confusing messages on masks from government officials in the early days of the pandemic. They insist they are not conspiracy theorists and do not believe that the coronavirus is a hoax, but many have also expressed doubts about the growing scientific evidence surrounding the virus and have opted for curated and unverified sources of information on social media rather than traditional news sources. They often said they were not political but admitted that they leaned to the right.
Most said they didn't know anyone who had contracted or died from Covid-19, and when I told them I did, the answers were the same: how old were they? did they have any pre-existing conditions? They know their position is unpopular, and most spoke on condition of anonymity and are only referred to by their first names. Amy told me that people are "not very nice about it".
The mask debate is complex. As much as it is about science, health and risk, it is also about empathy. If someone does not personally know someone who has died from Covid-19, does that mean that life does not matter? Are the elderly and immunocompromised disposable? Does one person's right to ignore public health advice really trump another person's right to life?
"Death happens in these wards where even family members cannot visit their loved ones when they are ill with Covid. Therefore, the death and severity of this disease is truly invisible to the public," said Kumi Smith, assistant professor from the University of Minnesota, who studies infectious diseases.
It leads some people to brush the subject aside.
"I'm compassionate that everyone has to die, but that's the reality of our lives. And I almost feel like if I get Covid and I die of it, then so be it," said Gina, a real estate agent from Pennsylvania who wears a mask at work but otherwise declines mask requirements.
"I'm compassionate that everyone has to die, but that's the reality of our lives"
But the question of empathy works the other way around too — attacking people for not wearing a mask doesn't change opinion. Having an open, more forgiving conversation might read a story about men who don't wear masks. He contacted the article's author, Harvard epidemiologist Julia Marcus, and - somehow - came up with the idea of wearing one, at least in certain situations.
“I want to be sensitive, I want to follow scientific principles, but I also want to use common sense,” Liftman told me. “You never want to read something that just embarrasses you. I really don't think two people are that different are that they cannot find common ground.”
"These people are part of our community and they put other people at risk," Marcus said. "If you can move some people, you'll see an overall reduction in risk."
Freedom, but for your face
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spiral out of control in the United States, many states, localities and businesses have moved to requiring mask wearing in hopes that the measure will slow the spread of the infection 34 states have a mask mandate, and polls show a clear majority of Americans would also support a national mask mandate.
For those who disagree, part of the problem is this: they insist they are not against the mask, they are against the mandate. "If you want to wear a mask, great. I will never look down on you , have something bad to say to you, do what you want. But I don't agree with the mandates and I don't think they're right right now," said Gina.
Rallies against mask mandates have sprung up across the country, similar to the business reopening protests that took place in state capitals earlier this year.People wanted the freedom to get their hair cut;now they want the freedom to be in being able to go to the supermarket without covering her face.
Some of the people I spoke to drew the line, particularly with government mandates. It's one thing for a private company to require customers to wear a mask, they said, but another thing for a state government to do so. Private facilities "have a right to do this, and you should respect those rules," said Jason, a Michigan paramedic.
Others also fretted over companies' rules. Members of a Facebook group posted a list of shops that required masks, chatted about boycotts of those retailers, or visited them to challenge the rules.
When I spoke to Jacqueline, who lives in Wyoming, she was upset about the mask requirement at her local Menards. She had been to the hardware store twice in the past few days without a mask - the first time she was allowed to shop despite breaking the rules, she wasn't so lucky the second time. She was asked to leave the store after a physical altercation ensued - Jacqueline says a worker pushed her, the store says she rammed someone with a cart - and that Management called the police to file a complaint. She's now banned from the store. "You don't have to ban me because I'm never going back," Jacqueline said. She told me she's going to Home Depot instead. (It also appears to be requiring masks for customers.)
As a reason why she believes she is exempt from the rules, Jacqueline cited the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution. "No state shall make laws that take away our liberties and liberties," she said.
But then she mentioned a mask exemption card she got - not from a doctor but from a friend. It seems she has one of the fake cards some people use to try and wear a mask by claiming of having a disability. "I get overheated very easily," she explains.
The problem with the freedom argument is that wearing a mask means more than protecting yourself - there is mounting evidence that masks are useful in protecting others from those who may have Covid-19 and it don't know. Not wearing a mask may interfere with another person's freedom to go out in relative safety.
Part of the problem is that the facts have changed. Another part is where the facts are coming from.
There is no denying that Covid-19 news from official channels has sometimes been confusing and contradictory.People used to be told not to wear a mask, but now that has changed.Scientific consensus is evolving with new information , this is a new disease and like it or not, the world is full of uncertainty.
Given this uncertainty, it makes sense that people would have doubts. If officials have changed their mind about masks before, what's stopping them from doing it again? Some people also feel the pandemic isn't that bad is as it was portrayed in the spring. You don't know many people who have gotten sick and in some places, especially in rural areas, masks just aren't that common.
Among those I've spoken to, however, I've found that while the conversation begins with conflicting messages and doubts about effectiveness, it often evolves into conspiracy theories. The mainstream media lies, they said, asking if I saw this video on YouTube or followed this person on Twitter. Jacqueline's Facebook timeline was filled with posts the platform flagged as fake and diatribes that the company was censoring them. She told me they were coming to terms Weeks injured her hand and that she weighed going to the emergency room but decided against it: She's 65 and believes she would automatically get a positive Covid-19 test and be put on a ventilator, probably to die .
Bryan, who lives in New Jersey, declined to speak on the phone for this story out of concern that I might misinterpret his words. He chose to communicate via LinkedIn and sent more than 4,000 over several days Words explaining his thoughts on masks and the pandemic.First he said his main topic was the mandate.
"What the mandates have done is scare people into believing they are a must to avoid catching the virus. And because these frightened few feel that way, they become angry and loathsome towards anyone who does not share their fear," he wrote.
Bryan told me that he and his fellow "truth seekers" have always questioned the death rate figures from Covid-19, and he has expressed doubts about advice from government officials and media coverage of the pandemic. He conceded Agreeing that some of what he said made him sound like a conspiracy theorist, he also caved in: He believes masks are a step to "get people to comply with regulations so they make vaccines mandatory too His theory: "Soon it will be 'take the vaccine' or you won't be able to travel, shop etc." Or even worse, he said, digital IDs or "health passports".
Certain theories and conspiracies kept coming up. Almost everyone I spoke to referred to a lone Florida man whose death in a motorcycle accident was incorrectly listed as a Covid-19 death and said it was a Evidence that the death toll from the virus is grossly overstated. (Research has shown that coronavirus deaths are likely to be underreported.) Many have said that hydroxychloroquine is the miracle cure for Covid-19, despite being proven ineffective, and that efforts to develop other drugs or a vaccine are simply a ploy by Big Pharma to make money. At times, Bill Gates was involved, although exactly why he was painted as a nefarious figure was somewhat unclear.
Bryan cited an event related to pandemic preparedness hosted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in October 2019 as evidence of activities that seem "oddly random" given current events. "Who's one of those who support all this 'preparation'? Good old Bill Gates, a man who not so long ago had a huge image problem due to monopolistic practices and so on. Now he seems to have revived his image because he's a 'virus and vaccine expert'?” Bryan wrote.
Most people I spoke to got their information from their own "independent research" or content they found on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.
“YouTube is where alternative thinkers will think,” Mak told me, whose torrid British Columbia yoga studio has been shut down due to the coronavirus.
"There's definitely some kind of agenda here to initiate control over people and make people more obedient and docile and see which people are going to follow some guidelines," he said.
"I know they lie to the masses"
Some anti-maskers have turned to creating their own content.Tanya, also from British Columbia, had gone to local hospitals to try to record what was happening and prove that media reports of the outbreak were false.
"I know they lie to the masses," she told me. "I don't know anyone who has coronavirus, I don't know anyone who knows anyone, and I know a lot of people."
"Anti-maskers will say that masks make you breathe your own carbon dioxide," said Eleanor Murray, an epidemiologist at Boston University have to wear a mask."
Politics is part of it, but not everything
Like so many things, masks have become a politicized issue. President Donald Trump and many Republicans have used them as political lightning rods for months. Some have since changed their minds - the President has started recommending masks, although his message has not been consistent or was with all my heart.
"The challenge is that early on, political leaders said that we don't wear masks seriously follow President Trump," said Catherine Sanderson, a professor of psychology at Amherst College. "If you have someone in that kind of living role who says, 'I'm not going to do that,' that creates a norm that people are motivated to follow.”
Jacqueline told me that she believes the pandemic death toll has been inflated to undermine the president. "They all say that so they make the president look bad, so they can cause the problems they do cause," she said.
Politicization is also playing out at a much more local level. I spoke to Anthony Sabatini, a member of the Florida House of Representatives who has filed multiple lawsuits over mask mandates. Before our interview, he stressed that he was concerned about mandates and government abuse, not about the masks themselves.
During our discussion, he first claimed that the police would go into shops and homes and check if people were wearing a mask. When I asked for evidence, he referred to an ordinance against gatherings of more than 10 people - no masks - , but claimed they were "an integral part" of the same problem. When I asked Sabatini if he personally wore a mask, his first response was, "Where? In my bed?" I made it clear: when he goes out, he likes to wear it Grocery store.Sabatini, 31, told me he doesn't go to the grocery store because he's "too busy" and "a millennial," so he eats out all the time. He acknowledged that he sometimes goes to the grocery store, and when I asked him if he was wearing a mask there, he insisted that I name the specific store.
Sabatini said older people in general are most at risk of dying from Covid-19, adding that he was "very careful" around them - particularly those aged 82 and over. Most of the deaths are in care homes occurred, he explained, and he doesn't know anyone personally at a nursing home. "Anyone in my age group, it's just rare that you know someone who's in that age group," he said.
According to the Florida House of Representatives website, more than 500 people lived in nursing homes in Sabatini's district as of the 2010 census, and about 5 percent of the population it represents is 80 years of age or older.
"Grannies and grandpas die all the time"
Spring outside my Brooklyn apartment was a symphony of sirens. If there's a chance, wearing a piece of cloth over my face can prevent that, that's fine with me. It's been a problem I've shared with many Anti-maskers asked: If I'm wrong, the worst thing that has happened to me was being a little unwell at the grocery store in July. If you're wrong, you and others could get sick and die. Is it worth the risk?
"I don't want to be responsible for killing anyone," Gina, the Pennsylvania real estate agent, told me, though she still insisted the virus was exaggerated. "If cases stopped being reported and talked about, the coronavirus would be gone."
"I hear people say all the time, 'I'd rather play it safe than sorry, I don't want to be a granny killer.' I'm sorry for sounding harsh," Mak said with a chuckle. "I laugh because grannies and grandpas die all the time. It's sad. But here's the thing: It's about blind obedience and compliance."
"If there is a vaccine, this is the same group of people saying they won't get a vaccine"
As tempting as many may be to write off the anti-mask crowd, it's not that easy. As Lois Parshley recently pointed out for Vox, enforcing a mask mandate is a difficult and complex task. But it's important: Many anti-maskers also have doubts about a vaccine, which public health experts say will be a crucial part of overcoming the pandemic.
"Masks are probably a proxy for not believing in science, not in experts," said Sanderson of Amherst College. "The challenge, of course, is if there's a vaccine, they're the same group of people who say they don't get a vaccine."
So how do you break through? As tempting as some people might find it to shame and attack people who don't wear a mask, it's probably not the answer.
"One of the challenges is that you have to get people on your side without saying 'You're stupid' because when it's 'You're stupid' it's very difficult to convince someone," said Sanderson, who is also the author of Why We Act: Turning Bystanders Into Moral Rebels, a book about social norms.
As difficult (and sometimes contentious) some conversations were, overall everyone was very nice. They also sent follow-up information to try and get me to see things their way. It's easy to Realize how you might get implicated for someone on the fence: When Pro-Mask Bob tells you you're a killer, but Anti-Mask Sue tells you she has a video you should see, maybe you prefer dealing with Sue.
Masks aren't a panacea, said Smith of the University of Minnesota. But that doesn't mean they aren't worth it. "We're at this point where we're desperate in the United States," she said I'm not going to belittle Anti-Masker and say, 'No, this will definitely save everyone's life', but I think it's really problematic to flatly dismiss it because some scientists have changed their minds."
Like it or not, we all stick together, mask on or mask off. And just as science can change, so can minds.
Liftman, the Massachusetts man who spoke with the Harvard epidemiologist who wrote about men who wouldn't wear masks, told me that his conversation with the writer changed his mind. He felt that they Showed compassion and didn't judge him. He's still a bit skeptical - he thinks it's bad that he's supposed to wear a mask when ordering from the ice cream truck outside. But if he's in a store or in a crowded area, he gets it. Though he still believes in individual freedom, he says it's not just about himself, it's also about the worker at the supermarket who has no choice and the person next to him in line.
"I was quite skeptical about the whole thing. Is it about government control? Do we really need it? As science has advanced, I've become more attached to the idea that we really should protect ourselves more often than I initially thought" , Liftman said. Talking to Marcus and another virologist he contacted made a difference. "It opened my eyes to be a little bit more sensitive."
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