-You know, it's remarkable that this little piece of cloth
could become such a focal point
and that they face such resistance in the US.
-Face masks are a staple of everyday life
in the United States.
When the coronavirus outbreak began to grip the nation
in 2020, initial symbols in the early weeks
of the pandemic were deserted streets and lockdown alerts.
But soon, face mask sewing tutorials
flooded our social timelines.
Masks have transformed into fashion accessories,
political statements, the root of heated debates.
-I work for Costco and I'm asking this member
to put on a mask because that is our company policy.
So either wear the mask -- -And I'm not doing it
because I woke up in a free country.
-And sometimes even actual brawls.
Most prominently, they have come to serve as a symbol
for how seriously a person is taking the coronavirus pandemic.
The initial messaging on face masks was murky.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
and the World Health Organization told the public
not to wear a mask unless you were sick
or were taking care of someone who was infected.
-And a lot of that was driven by a concern
that there would be mask shortages
and that there wouldn't be enough masks
for healthcare workers.
-Right now in the United States,
people should not be walking around with masks.
-You're sure of it?
'Cause people are listening really closely to this.
-Right now, people should not be --
there's no reason to be walking around with a mask.
-Eventually, we learned that COVID-19
spreads through small water droplets in the air
and that masks are the best way
an individual can protect themselves
and shield others from the virus.
-If governors and others essentially mandate
the use of masks when you have an outbreak,
I think that would be very important.
-Both organizations ultimately reversed their advisements.
Conflicting advice from lawmakers, President Trump,
and his administration also fueled the debate.
-When needed, I wear masks.
-Okay, let me ask -- -I don't wear masks like him.
Every time you see him, he's got a mask.
He could be speaking 200 feet away from you
and he shows up with the biggest mask I've ever seen.
-Well, I'm more than 10 feet away.
I'm not --
Well, I'm not gonna talk through a mask.
-Remember, your mask protects me and my mask protects you.
-Mask is not a political statement.
-Can you put it back on for me?
-No, 'cause I'm gonna talk to the TV.
We can stand six feet apart,
which is what the CDC guideline is.
-If someone is wearing a mask, they're not doing it
to represent what political party they're in
or what candidates they support.
They might be doing it because they've got a 5-year-old child
who's been going through cancer treatments.
They might have vulnerable adults in their life.
-This has been a heavily politicized issue.
Please do not get caught up in that.
-When wearing a face mask became the official public
health recommendation, the nation became divided.
There were those who wore face masks
and those who publicly doubted their efficacy
and said wearing one infringed on their freedom.
-For one group of folks, it was a symbol of freedom.
I think for another group of folks,
and a rather large swath of the population in the United States,
it was the opposite.
That mask was a symbol of tyranny and, you know,
people feeling like their rights were being taken from them.
So it's a really fascinating dichotomy.
-The fear signal should be about the threat of the disease,
but fact, people are getting more fearful, in my view,
of wearing masks, of being told to quarantine,
of being told to distance,
and they were reacting against this --
what psychologists called reactants.
All cultures have rules or norms for behavior.
Most of us don't walk outside the house naked
or steal people's food in restaurants
or sing really loudly in a movie theater.
We sort of know that that's inappropriate.
But some cultures tend to be tighter.
They tend to more strictly abide by social norms,
and some tend to be looser.
And in general, neither is good or bad.
Loose cultures tend to be really innovative and really tolerant,
and tight cultures tend to have a lot of order and discipline.
So there's a real sort of mismatch between the traits
that make us so innovative during times
when there's not a lot of threat,
and the kinds of traits that are required, really,
to face a global threat.
When you have a collective threat,
you need strict rules to coordinate to survive.
Also, I think in East Asian cultures
where there's a lot of mask wearing,
people are concerned about spreading it to other people.
There's a real insight that, "Actually,
this helps my neighbors, helps my colleagues."
When collective that's more invisible like COVID,
you need a signal, a fear to tighten, which is adapted,
and that includes understanding that masks are important,
that social distancing is important.
-Face masks have long been a part of society
in some Asian countries.
Some historians point to the 1918 flu epidemic
as the moment they became a cultural mainstay.
-After that time, people in Japan really began
to wear surgical or cloth face masks
as a means of protecting themselves
against the influenza pandemic,
as well as trying to protect others from getting contagion.
So I think that piggybacked on the fact that there was
a tradition of wearing facial coverings for various reasons,
whether that was to protect you from the sun or for allergies
or for modesty purposes.
So there is a lot of preoccupation with one's health
and one's family's health in those cultures,
and that extends also to a great awareness of public health,
that is the individual has a responsibility
to help keep their community,
not just their own family, healthy.
-The coronavirus originated in Wuhan, China.
Some people used this to resurface racist stereotypes
about Asian Americans,
especially targeting those wearing masks.
-A lot of members of the Asian-American community
have been targeted since the beginning of this pandemic,
blamed for bringing the pandemic to the United States,
blamed for continuing it here, and because of that, initially,
a lot of people who were wearing face masks
who were of Asian origin in this country were being targeted
because of this very visible symbol of wearing the face mask.
And so I think that's been a really unfortunate consequence
of this pandemic.
-And here we are now, a year later.
Vaccines are providing much-needed relief
and a light at the end of the tunnel,
but while millions of Americans wait their turn,
health experts are still encouraging social distancing,
the minimization of travel, and yes, wearing a face mask.
Whether they remain a part of society's post-pandemic fabric
still remains to be seen.
-I think there will be more usage of face masks
like they are in East Asia more commonly.
If you're sick, like if you have a cold
and you're still going to the office,
then you might choose to wear a face mask
when you're on public transportation,
or maybe even when you get to the office
just to protect others from getting sick.
I think there's going to be more normalization
of that kind of usage of the face mask.
-I think we've learned a lot about COVID.
If we want to try to prepare for future collective threats,
for later waves of what we're experiencing,
we need to start thinking about the rationale of culture,
why it makes sense to tighten rules under threat
and loosen them when threat subsides.