by Daisy Luther, The Organic Prepper:

Masks have become a symbol of which “side” you’re on in the coronavirus debate in the United States and for some folks, whether you choose to wear one or not says a lot about you.

If you don’t wear a mask, you’re seen as a callous brute who doesn’t care whether you spread your germs and kill grandma. If you do wear a mask, you’re seen as a quivering sheep, someone who has been willingly muted by the government.

Rationally, we know there’s a lot more to it than that, however, rational thinking is rarely at the forefront when tempers are flaring. Whether or not you choose to wear a mask is an incredibly visible sign that many will read as an alliance to one “side” or the other. It’s becoming almost tribal. It’s like the Bloods and the Crips of suburbia getting ready to throw down at Trader Joe’s.

The Mask Wearers

There are a lot of folks who come down on the side of wearing a mask. Why? Most of them say it’s to protect others from them in case they’re unwittingly carrying and spreading the virus. Asymptomatic COVID is a mystery. Scientists have said anywhere between 5% and 80% of carriers are asymptomatic, which really tells us nothing except, maybe you are, maybe you aren’t.

The Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford University summed it up after assembling the data from 21 reports:

What did we learn (see the table for the analysis)

• That between 5% and 80% of people testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 may be asymptomatic


• That symptom-based screening will miss cases, perhaps a lot of them


• That some  asymptomatic cases  will  become  symptomatic over the next week (sometimes known as “pre-symptomatics”)


• That children and young adults can be asymptomatic

We also learnt that there  is not a single reliable study to determine the number of  asymptotics. It is likely we will only learn the true extent once population based antibody testing  is undertaken. (source)

So with that in mind, the case for mask-wearing does carry some weight.

However, it also depends on what kind of mask you’re wearing whether or not the protection is present. Everyone knows that N95 and N99 masks are nearly impossible to find and most want to leave those for healthcare workers anyway. The data regarding the cloth masks that most people are wearing doesn’t really support their use. But again, we don’t have very much data, so it’s not a definitive answer. The Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy reports:

Limited, indirect evidence from lab studies suggests that homemade fabric masks may capture large respiratory droplets, but there is no evidence they impede the transmission of aerosols implicated in the spread of COVID-19, according to a paper published yesterday by the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (source)

So while science does not dispute the wearing of cloth masks, science doesn’t back it up, either.

Those Who Won’t Wear Masks

On the other side of the debate we have those who refuse to wear masks. Some folks won’t do business in stores that require them. Others try to enter the establishments that require masks without adhering to the requests. Others just stay at home because they refuse to comply.

Why won’t they wear masks? Some of it goes back to the Surgeon General’s early recommendation that masks were not helpful in stopping the spread of the coronavirus. Many people chalked this up to an attempt to save the few high-quality masks that were available to healthcare workers while others took it as the Gospel. However, Surgeon General Adams seems to have walked this back and has since demonstrated on video how to make your own face mask.

There are a couple of other reasons, too. First, many feel based on the information above that the masks are not effective. If they don’t work, why should they go through the discomfort and for some, the difficulty breathing that mask-wearing brings?

Some see it as a symbol of weakness.

To some, wearing a mask means admitting a fear they may not have consciously confronted yet, said David Abrams, a clinical psychologist and professor of social and behavioral science at New York University’s School of Global Public Health.

Many view the mask as a walking symbol of vulnerability that tells others you’re scared about contracting the virus. So to compensate for that fear, and as a show of strength, they may reject the masks entirely, he said. (source)

For others, it’s a matter of liberty.  They feel that wearing a mask is a symbol of bowing down to tyranny or a symbol that the wearer has been silenced.

Even though wearing masks isn’t compulsory in much of the US, adhering to these rules may feel like, to some, a forfeiture of their freedoms.

People naturally rebel when they’re told what to do, even if the measures could protect them, said Steven Taylor, a clinical psychologist and author of “The Psychology of Pandemics.”

“People value their freedoms,” he said. “They may become distressed or indignant or morally outraged when people are trying to encroach on their freedoms.” (source)

That last reason shouldn’t come as a surprise. Our nation was built on refusing to be told what to do.

There has already been violence over masks

People have already expressed their displeasure on both sides of this debate…sometimes violently.

Unfortunately, retail workers are often the ones bearing the brunt of the anger when they’re simply trying to enforce the policies set forth by their employers. One of my daughters is a retail worker. She and her coworkers have been warned they’ll be fired on the spot if they haven’t followed the arbitrary guidelines of people standing on Xs and limiting the number of customers in the store. Officials from corporate headquarters have dropped in unbeknownst to employees to check that their measures are being enforced. She’s definitely not alone and the risk of violence is high. But she – like many others – is just happy to still have a job.

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