I’m researching (for part of an MA dissertation and novel) the use of masks during contagious disease pandemics through history. Compulsion vs liberty has always been an issue. Ironically, maybe, it was in the US (in California) that masks were enforced by law.
‘The Board of Health San Francisco has issued an appeal to every employer labour see that all those in their employ wear the mask during work hours and coining and going. Housewives are asked to refuse to deal with firms whose employees near masks. All motormen and conductors of the United railroads are being equipped with them. As well as all postmen and policemen.’
It was reported on the 15th of December 1918 that the wearing of masks in San Fransisco for 9 days had halted the spread of influenza (The People, 15 December 1918, 4). There was some backlash. An anti-mask league was established.
In most countries, including Britain, mask wearing was only recommended. There was some debate:
In Feburary 1919 London County Council doctors warned that the public should be ‘compelled to wear influenza masks (Derby Daily Telegraph. 19 Feb 1919, 4)
It does seem, though, that masks were extensively worn in Both the U.S. and Britain.
Dr. Skinner wrote in the Northampton Mercury in February 1919 that:
‘in times of great epidemic prevalence the most useful measure would the adoption of face masks. This appears to be the only real preventive measure open to us; the use of gargles and nose washes is good, but is obviously designed to kill the microbe alter entry, and not to prevent entry. Masks are not necessarily hideous, and if sprinkled occasionally with some antiseptic substance a pleasant odour, such as perfume, would provide a double safeguard.’ (Northampton Mercury, 28 Feburary 1919, 11)
Daily Mirror – Tuesday 18 February 1919
As Stephen Harris has written in The Conversation, studies show that masks offer no protection against catching a virus, but there is some (although not much) evidence that the mass wearing of masks reduces infection rates. At this point, it seems that small inconvenience is worth baring, even if the gains are unproven or minimal. Furthermore, the symbolic effects of wearing a mask, a reminder of what’s still out there in people and on surface, I’m sure cannot have a negligible effect. Compulsion, though, is always another matter.
The wearomg of masks, whether or not it does any good, is nothing more than a way to stave off the growing fear of a pandamic. It’s just a way to try and contain any sense of control over yourself. If you wear a mask, you know you have some level of protection against others who might be infected and that decreases, to some extent, the level of fear thst will get aroused when you venture outisde and become exposed.