If the Bubonic Plague had killed more than 200,000 people in America, everyone would be wearing a mask. If Ebola had killed more than 200,000 people in America, everyone would be wearing a mask. Why is that? Because everyone thinks that both the Bubonic Plague and Ebola are big freaking deals.
So, when it comes to COVID-19, who wears masks, and who does not? The people who think that COVID-19 is a big freaking deal wear masks, and the people who do not think it is a big freaking deal—those who think that COVID-19 is like the flu or a cold, or that it is a hoax—do not consistently wear masks. The non-mask wearers believe this because the Trump Administration consistently underplayed the dangers of COVID-19 in the beginning, and then Fox News, the Right-Wing websites, and the Right-Wing talk radio all played along with the idea that it was no big deal. Then Trump, who watches Fox News all of the time, kept hearing that it was no big deal, so he kept believing it was no big deal. In other words, Trump believed his own BS as his own BS was being fed to him from Fox News.
The irony is that if the Trump Administration had acted like COVID-19 was a big deal in the beginning and had warned people all the time to wear masks, to social distance, and to wash their hands and if the Trump administration had worked hard to make sure everyone had the medical equipment and the PPE gear that they needed from the beginning, if we had had the large scale testing and contract tracing that we needed in the beginning, then COVID-19 would be a much smaller deal right now.
Downplaying the virus was completely wrong because now millions of Americans have locked into their brains the idea that COVID-19 is no big deal. This situation will make it so much harder over the next few months to bring this nightmare to an end.
Oh, and testing may let people know that they have COVID-19, but it doesn’t stop it from spreading like wearing a mask does. Yeah, I am talking to you, Trump Administration. What a bunch of freaking morons.