Changes

The Covid-19 pandemic is not the first time in the United States that public health officials encouraged people to wear masks to limit the spread of a deadly virus. In the United States, a surprising number of Americans have been angered by this simple request. This reaction should not be unexpected. Similarly, during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, mask-wearing was also politicized. In desperation, public health officials then turned to various tactics to convince Americans to wear masks.

By the autumn of 1918 in the United States, it was clear the flu pandemic was becoming out of control and that surging cases across the country required public health officials to issue direct guidance for people to wear masks. For some states, masks were part of broader set of policies such as social distancing, washing hands, and general cleanliness to avoid spreading the virus. Some cities in the Western United States, including some towns now where we see hostility to wearing masks, passed laws that required masks to be worn at all times by the autumn of 1918. These laws were implemented in places all over the United States, including Phoenix, San Francisco, and even Juneau, Alaska (Figure 1).