Hangtooth

The fear and resistance didn’t appear out of nowhere. In Feb–March 2020, USA officials actively told the public not to wear masks. The Surgeon General tweeted “Seriously people STOP BUYING MASKS! They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching Coronavirus.” Fauci said on 60 Minutes “There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask.” Fauci later said the earlier “don’t wear masks” guidance was mainly to save PPE for healthcare workers and because officials did not yet fully understand asymptomatic spread. On April 3, the CDC changed its advice and began recommending cloth masks in public because of new evidence that people could spread Covid asymptomatically. The WHO promoted advice against masking until June. When President Trump announced the new CDC guidance, he called it “voluntary” and said he would not wear a mask himself. That rapid, poorly explained reversal from “masks don’t help the public and may even increase risk” to “masks are essential” created lasting distrust. That sudden flip, combined with social media posts claiming masks cause CO2 poisoning and framing them as tools of control, is why a simple piece of filtration media still triggers such strong fear and loathing in so many people.