It is usually a fabric with two elastic bands at two ends. She puts it on her face to cover her mouth and nose, and acts as a barrier to the rest of the world.
Masks, therefore, are very simple objects.
But in the United States they are a great source of controversy. While many Americans follow public health recommendations and wear masks in public to limit the spread of Covid-19, others passionately fight them, saying they undermine individual freedom.
Here is what we know about the anti-mask movement in the United States:
What is the controversy about masks in the United States?
While polls show that most Americans wear masks when they are in public, whether companies and local governments should require masks has become a divisive political issue. A recent poll from the Pew Research Center found that Democrats were more likely to say they wore masks than Republicans.
This is in line with the messages from the leaders within the two parties.
Democratic leaders have expressed more about the importance of face masks. Many Democratic governors have made wearing masks public. Joe Biden, the alleged Democratic presidential candidate, said that if he were in the White House, “he would do everything possible to demand that people have to wear masks in public.”
Conversely, while many Republican leaders have also spoken about the importance of masks, other high-ranking Republicans have been more reluctant to order masks, even as their states have begun to see waves of new cases in the midst of the reopening phases. . The most obvious of these is Donald Trump himself.
And although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends wearing masks to prevent the spread of the virus, the US President suggested that wearing a mask could be seen as a political statement against him and mocked Biden for wearing a mask in public.
That message has reached the public, which has turned the masks into a “culture war”. Some companies have put up signs that tell customers they are obligated no to Wear masks, while retail employees elsewhere have had to deal with angry customers who refuse to wear them.
When did the reaction against masks start in the United States?
What started as largely unmasked protests against the shutdown orders has grown into broader sentiment against the mask. As states have slowly begun to reopen their economies, many national chains and local businesses require customers to wear face masks when they are in stores.
Therefore, companies, and particularly their employees, are increasingly on the front line of the mask debate. Stores that have been strict about masks have reported an increase in angry customers lashing out when employees try to turn them down for not wearing masks. The most extreme case was in Flint, Michigan, where a Family Dollar store employee was shot on May 4 after telling a customer that his daughter had to wear a face mask to enter the store.
Why do people say they are against masks?
Many of those who refuse to wear masks say it imposes their individual freedom.
Reopening NC, a group that opposes closing orders in North Carolina, said the masks were “muzzles” that, along with things like mandatory temperature controls, were “ways our freedom is being eroded.” The group started a “Burn Your Mask Challenge” where people post videos on social media of themselves burning their masks and use the hashtag “#IgniteFreedom”.
At a meeting of local leaders in Palm Beach, Florida, several people spoke publicly about why they were against the masks. The reasons ranged from anger masking “throwing God’s wonderful breathing system out the door” to invoking a “plan-demic” conspiracy theory.
“You are taking away our freedoms and trampling on our constitutional rights through these communist dictatorship orders or laws that you want to order,” one woman said in the hearing.
Some experts say some of the resistance to the masks could come from confusing public messages from public health officials at the start of the pandemic. When the virus first appeared off the U.S. coast, public health officials said the masks were not necessary for people who did not show symptoms and discouraged people from buying them.
The CDC changed course in early April, saying new research showed asymptomatic carriers were common spreaders of the virus, although some experts say the evidence for the use of masks had already been clear. Anthony Fauci, the epidemiologist leading the U.S. response against Covid-19, admitted that part of the reason why public health officials discouraged the masks is because the United States was experiencing a shortage of masks for care workers. essential medical.
What are public health officials saying about the masks now?
Public health experts unanimously agree that the masks help delay the spread of Covid-19. The CDC and the World Health Organization published recommendations to the public to wear masks when social distancing is not possible.
Although the masks alone will not completely stop the spread of the virus, recent research has shown that wearing them is the most efficient way to stop its transmission. Fauci, in a recent talk, said that everyone should wear a mask in public and that “it should not be a political problem.” It is purely a public health problem. “
