Anne Hernandez of Troy is responding to the shortage of face masks during the Novel Coronovirus threat by showing how she makes a mask. Detroit Free Press
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Wearing a mask or not is no longer just a question of public health, but has become symbolic of political beliefs for some.
As stay-at-home orders loosen and more people slowly begin to re-enter society, the decision to wear a mask is becoming a larger conversation — wear a mask for health precautions, or don’t in support of personal freedoms.
Michael McLachlan plans to ditch his face mask the moment he gets the “all clear.”
But until then he will wear a mask in public — not because he wants to, but because it matters to the health and safety of other people. Like many, McLachlan, a 46-year-old from Plymouth who works in banking, did not adopt the face coverings quickly. He considers himself a “late adopter” of the masks, but did so when he saw grocery workers were all covering their faces.
“If they are willing to work so I can go get hot dog buns, then I feel like I owe it to them to wear the mask as well,” he said.
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It’s a lifestyle adjustment some struggle to make, and others refuse to make. Hundreds of protesters flooded the Michigan State Capitol building on several occasions to protest Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home order — most without a mask.
In the days that followed, face coverings became a heated issue across the state.
A Family Dollar security guard in Flint was gunned down after he turned a customer away for not wearing a mask. Just 20 miles away, a man at a Dollar Tree in Holly wiped his uncovered face on a store clerk’s sleeve when asked to wear a mask.
Shortly before tempers flared at local grocery stores, a Michigan senator wore a face mask that appeared to depict the Confederate flag during a Senate vote in Lansing April 25.
“I feel like it has become somewhat of a political thing,” McLachlan said. “It is their statement that the government kind of overreached and their way of protesting is not to wear a mask. I’m mystified that it has become a political thing versus the science.”
Mixing messages
The extreme behavior is not indicative of the majority who have adhered to the rules, despite the fact wearing face coverings is a new and unfamiliar part of our culture. But it does represent a partisan difference in willingness to comply — a very visible one, said Matt Grossmann, director of Michigan State University’s Institute for Public Policy and Social Research (IPPSR) and associate professor of political science.
“What we are seeing is, initially and ongoing, partisan differences in the public in willingness and interest in following public health advice and the level of concern about the coronavirus,” Grossmann said. “The usual explanation is there is a difference in elite messaging on that issue.”
According to a poll recently conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, Democrats are more likely to wear a face mask when leaving the house compared with Republicans, 76% to 59%, respectively.
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It comes down to whether or not people think wearing the masks will benefit them and if they care about their health, according to Catalina Kopetz, associate professor of psychology at Wayne State University. When messages are mixed, people instead fall back on what they know and make decisions based on that.
The debate is one that has been fueled further by social media.
“Social media, by the way that it caters to an individual’s own ideologies and ideas, only enhances the legitimacy of their beliefs,” Kopetz said. “People are never exposed to information that contradicts their beliefs, they are never offered alternative perspectives. They are only served messages that fit their current beliefs.”
The tension goes back to who is sending the message and the different messages being sent, Grossmann said. Mixed messaging from political leaders leads to a more polarized society.
“The public doesn’t polarize on its own,” Grossmann said. “It polarizes when political leaders and different parties send different messages. That is happening more in the U.S. than in other countries.”
At the top of the messaging board is President Donald Trump, who has publicly said he would not wear a mask. Vice President Mike Pence visited the Mayo Clinic without a mask, seemingly violating the clinic’s policy.
The messaging has not always been crystal clear — as the coronavirus situation has evolved, so has the guidance to wear a mask in public places. Early on, the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised against face masks but later reversed course.
Not only was the message on masks unclear, people were told they could save health care workers but not the general public, said Lana V. Ivanitskaya, Ph.D. and professor of industrial-organizational psychology at Central Michigan University.
“The message was that masks don’t help,” Ivanitskaya said. “That message was also very damaging because we were saying to people that masks don’t help them and at the same time, we were crying for masks for health care workers” saying “their lives would be saved if they had masks.”
A collection of states have made masks mandatory — Michigan included. Under Whitmer’s executive order, everyone must wear a mask in all enclosed public spaces to halt the spread of COVID-19. If customers refuse to comply, businesses can turn them away.
But an executive order is not necessarily enough for some, especially after so much conflicting information. The U.S. culture is built on personal freedoms, not following the norms, Kopetz said.
As long as advice from public officials, from the president down to local politicians, continues to be mixed, the effects are likely to be seen in the public adaptation of the masks.
“When there is partisan division in between officials, there is eventually partisan division between the public,” Grossmann said. “I think that is what is happening here.”
Searching for normalcy
In a time of chaos and uncertainty, people are looking for signs of normalcy and calm.
Face masks represent anything but that.
“Maybe it is a bit of denying of the scientific facts, but it is clinging to the idea that they can live life as normal,” Ivanitskaya said. “Masks are probably the loudest symbol of ‘It’s not business as usual.’ If you wear a mask, it is scary. … To wear a mask means that people cannot read your emotions. It is scary to look at other people in masks — we don’t know when they are smiling, we don’t know their intentions, so we lose some important social clues.”
COVID-19 has created new insecurities and fears across communities.
Yet, for some, it simply highlights long-standing tensions.
People within the African-American community worry they face a difficult decision — don’t wear a mask and gamble their health, or wear a mask and risk discrimination. The pandemic highlights a bias and the issue of racial profiling black people have faced historically, said Gregg Barak, professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice at Eastern Michigan University.
“So you have a long, sweeping history where blacks, in particular, have been — and they are not the only people of color who have been — victimized, but they’ve been statistically more victimized just in terms of wearing a mask or not wearing a mask — either way, they are at risk,” Barak said. “If they don’t wear a mask, they are disproportionately cited in New York City.
“If they do wear a mask, they are more likely than not to be pulled over on suspicion of some type of crime. That is true historically and that is true presently.”
History proves mask or no mask, black people are in jeopardy, said NAACP Detroit President Rev. Dr. Wendell Anthony.
“A mask in our community is irrelevant. That fact may enhance it, but the mask, people have viewed us as wearing a mask just by the color of our skin, which we cannot mask,” Anthony told the Free Press. “It makes no difference whether we are wearing a mask, whether we are wearing a suit and a tie … gym shoes, running clothes, a hood, hoodless; whether we are in church, whether we are in a shopping mall, whether we are in a grocery store, whether we are on a street corner. The result too often in cases is the same — dead, dead, dead.”
After covering their faces for so long and being the subject of discrimination for doing so, Muslim women have highlighted a double standard that women who wear face coverings, known as niqab, now see.
Khaled A. Beydoun, a law professor at Wayne State University, said more women have pointed out the double standard now that masks are required, even though face coverings are part of their religion.
“Now with the pandemic, face coverings become mainstream. It’s become uniform and common across religious lines. So a lot of Muslim women feel like, ‘Hey, when we are doing this to freely exercise our religion in line with the First Amendment, for some reason it is off base. But now it has become mandatory, custom because of what’s happening with this virus.'”
Breaking it down
Mask or no mask may seem like a simple question, but rather than treating it like a yes or no question, Ivanitskaya said individuals should break it down further and create a plan to keep themselves safe.
A personal safety plan may not include a mask at all, but rather a goal to minimize trips outside the home and practice social distancing when necessary.
“Maybe we don’t need this politically heated discussion of ‘wear masks, don’t wear masks,'” she said. “If we reframe it and ask, ‘What are you doing to reduce your risk?’ And maybe mask deniers are totally right if they say, ‘Well I am going to minimize my social exposure, I am going to social distance.'”
Brandt LaPouttre, 39-year-old metal fabricator from Bay County, said he does not wear a mask but takes plenty of precautions in protecting himself against the coronavirus.
“I have been vigilant in maintaining social distance, only touching minimal things, washing and or sanitizing my hands when touching money or other surfaces,” LaPouttre said. “I have also found that the overall risk of contracting the virus maintains a low level of risk. I accept personal responsibility if I contract (COVID-19) or any other virus.”
While he has not been turned away from any store for not wearing a mask, LaPouttre said, he expects he will at some point. In that instance, he will find a different store to shop at.
LaPouttre has not been tested for the virus, but is only slightly concerned that he or others are asymptomatic carriers.
“I’ve been very vigilant,” he said. “My family had stayed home with the exception of taking drives for an hour or two. I want them to see the world still exists.”
Face masks are not widely thought of as the most comfortable accessory — between claustrophobia, glasses fogging up and general discomfort, a face mask does not always present the most pleasant experience.
Different face masks fit people differently, so making sure to find one that best suits personal needs will help in the long run, Ivanitskaya said.
It’s not an issue of comfort for LaPouttre, but an issue of freedom of choice.
Doing their part
Terrance Watson and his family began making face masks, known as GreatFit Masks, after his daughter made a few and sent them out to the family. When the masks got good reviews, they decided to start making more.
Watson, who is responsible for the marketing aspect of the new business, said word has spread through the grapevine. After just a few weeks of manufacturing the masks, Watson and his family had sent them as far as San Diego, California.
“It is not an easy thing (wearing a mask), especially if you’re claustrophobic or something like that,” Watson said. “Having a mask that’s got a good fit, that feels comfortable, I think that’s very important. I have to give my daughter kudos that she came up with a design … that fits your face well.”
The front lines of the coronavirus battle are close to the Watson family, as several family members are health care workers and first responders in New York, and close friends in Detroit have died of the virus.
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“I’ve lost some people,” Watson said. “It has been tough because one of the things in terms of looking in the Detroit area, I watch the things that are going on, but trying to provide something so people have some sense of being safe.”
For Drew Cohee, a 30-year-old quality assurance analyst in Berkley, doing his part means wearing his mask anytime he steps off his property.
“We definitely feel more comfortable if we walk off our property and someone is running by,” he said. “It can be kind of like rush hour traffic when we go for dog walks, so it is good to be protected from people.”
Meredith Spelbring is a news intern with the Detroit Free Press. Reach her at mspelbring@freepress.com or on Twitter @mere0415.
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