Put On Your Mask, I Don’t Care Why
Recently President Trump tweeted a black and white image of himself in a mask, his arms spread wide like an Elvis impersonator. “We are United in our effort to defeat the Invisible China Virus,” he wrote, “and many people say that it is Patriotic to wear a face mask when you can’t socially distance. There is nobody more Patriotic than me, your favorite President!”
He is not, by a long shot, my favorite president. Trump previously refused to wear a mask in public, politicizing the issue by making fun of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden for wearing one. On another occasion, he demanded a reporter remove his mask at a press conference in a closed environment, calling him “politically correct” when he refused. Politicizing mask wearing is perhaps the most harmful thing Trump has done as president during this global pandemic.
Wearing masks has been shown to slow the spread of coronavirus even in densely populated places like New York City. Many people who refuse to wear masks take cues from the president. It was particularly disappointing then, that following the president’s tweet implying that wearing a mask was patriotic, news outlet after news outlet undercut that message, implying he only sought to promote mask wearing for political gain. In the case of this pandemic, doing the right thing for the wrong reason can still create the overall same effect: it saves lives. Let us not be purists, demanding that we all wear masks for the same reason, because it should be clear by now that people wear masks for many different reasons, all of which help stop the spread of the disease.
Some people wear masks because jobs force them. Some people wear masks out of fear of contracting the virus. Some people wear masks because they worry about one particular family member. Some wear masks because they want to fit in. Some fear a fine. Some people wear masks because they care about humanity. In different states, people wear masks for different reasons. In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo repeatedly said: “I wear a mask to protect you, you wear a mask to protect me.” If this collectivist reason weren’t enough, street styles might inspire you, or the NYPD would fine you for non-compliance. In Vermont, the state with the least coronavirus in the nation, mask wearing was recently made mandatory by the state’s Republican governor. People put on masks to protect their neighbors but also to protect personal freedom. At a rural roadside stand there, I saw a sign reading: “please respect personal space, wear a mask,” a very different almost libertarian way of framing the issue.
Trump offers another reason: patriotism — a phrase, which in his administration, has come to stand-in for a kind of xenophobic hatred. However, if those of us who wear masks out of love have already put them on, I do suggest we welcome those who wear masks out of hate — or any other reason.
Coronavirus is running rampant in America, in part because mask wearing has become politicized. Men don’t want to wear masks because they fear it makes them weak. Republicans don’t wear masks because they fear it makes them look liberal. At the beginning of this crisis, the World Health Organization warned against politicizing mask-wearing, but now it is too late. The deed is done and it is unfortunately time to lean in to who we really are as a nation. We are a disagreeable bunch of individuals, each of whom thinks we are right. We live in a country created so that we can all exist freely in our walled off cities of thought, so long as we follow some basic rules. The one thing we may agree on is the freedom to disagree. In some ways, then, the most truly patriotic thing we can do is don masks for different reasons.
In the lab, as in life, a virus grows in a culture. We can no longer ignore those who don’t think like us, hoping for them to go away. Our only hope in encouraging mask compliance is to meet people where they are. We have to understand people’s various belief systems to understand what might motivate them to wear a mask. We also have to accept and even embrace that for some people, Trump’s message is the one that resonates. We cannot afford to discount a whole segment of the population as “stupid” or “evil” or “unworthy,” especially now, when we need eachother most. Just as the actions of those who don’t wear masks dehumanizes those around them, so too does subscribing to the belief that certain people are simply unreasonable or uneducated. This is especially true in this present moment, when information manipulation is rampant. We are all at risk of falling victim to “fake news,” because so much is unknown and constantly changing.
At this point, we may not have time to convince the general population that the virus is not an “Invisible China Virus.” We may not have the time to assure that everyone who puts a mask on cares deeply about humanity. We certainly don’t have time to criticize Trump during the rare moment when he does half a correct thing. Maybe I wear a mask to protect you, but you wear a mask because you hate that darn Invisible China Virus, but in the end we both don’t die, and in America now, that’s what passes for a good day.
