[Vol.84] Refusing Mask in The Middle of COVID-19

Wearing a mask when going outside has become a duty in Korea due to the pandemic caused by COVID-19. Unlike South Korea, people are going out without masks in Europe, North America, and other countries, and some people protest against the government's plan to make it mandatory to wear masks in public places. Why do they refuse to wear masks?

The first reason why some people in other countries don't wear masks is that they look at the COVID-19 at the level of a cold or flu. Stephen Taylor, a professor of psychiatry at the University of British Columbia, said lots of people underestimate the risk of COVID-19 because many people did not directly witness death or damage from COVID-19. As such, Westerners believe that wearing a mask is not necessary because they believe that COVID-19 is not much different from the previous flu. However, this view is disappearing as the death toll from the COVID-19 has increased rapidly in the West.

The second reason is that the government and the organization didn't recommend wearing them in response to the initial COVID-19 crisis. Early in the pandemic, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that healthy people do not need to wear facial masks. Also, by exposing some politicians not wearing masks continuously in public, it gave the public the perception that masks are not mandatory in the early stages of the pandemic. In addition, the Geneva headquarters of the United Nations said on its official Twitter account on March 31st that there is no basis for healthy people to wear masks. After all, a number of experts and studies confirmed that wearing a mask would help prevent the spread of COVID-19. But the idea of not having to wear a mask had already been widely known, making it difficult to wear a mask.

The third reason is that there is a strong negative perception of covering faces in the West. What image comes to your mind when you hear the word mask? Perhaps a mask for covering the mouth and nose, such as a health mask or a winter mask, will come to mind. However, in Western countries, they think of masks to hide their identity, such as attending a masquerade dance or committing a crime. Therefore, the word mask itself causes a negative feeling, and some consider the person wearing the mask is a suspicious person. Countries such as France and Austria are enforcing an "Anti-mask law" that bans people from wearing masks during demonstrations. In the West, there is a negative view of wearing a mask itself.

The last reason for not wearing a mask is that it has become a political symbol, especially in the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump has shown the public that he does not wear a mask despite the spread of corona in the U.S. But former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential candidate, has always been seen wearing a mask, making the mask itself a device of political color. Also during the press conference, President Trump asked reporters to take off the mask because he couldn't hear the questions well, and when the reporter refused, he said, "You want to be politically correct." making wearing the mask a symbol of political correctness. This keynote has become firm as it is woven with the ideas of Western conservative liberals who think the government's coercion of wearing masks violates civil liberties. As a result, Trump's supporters or anti-PCists have come to regard wearing masks as a symbol of Democratic supporters or PCists, and have refused to wear them.

There are four reasons that people refused to wear a mask: disvalue the risk of COVID-19, the complacency of initial guidance, the traditional perception of masks, and political debate over masks. However, some advocates about wearing masks accuse that their claims are worthless and show witch hunts for those who don't wear a mask. Of course, it is a scientific fact that wearing masks is effective in promoting public health, and the use of masks in Korea is a legitimate order. However, the opinion against wearing a mask is not completely worthless. Silence in all debates, as John Stewart Mill said, assumes absolute human errorlessness. When ninety-nine people silence one person, we lose the chance of restoring the truth or the precious opportunity to confirm the truth once again.