Page 16 - IJPS-11-5

International Journal of
Population Studies Human behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic

Figure 7. Primary COVID-19 nonpharmaceutical interventions timeframes

6.2.3.1. Face masks
Face masks have been around a long time. In the 1500s,
European women wore them to be fashionable and to
hide their identities. Pale skin was a sign of high status;
sun-kissed skin suggested poor health, and the drudgery
of working outside. To achieve the lightest complexion,
untouched by freckles and sunburn, upper-class women
wore face coverings to shield their faces from sun, wind,
and dust. Wearing face masks was controversial during the
1918 Spanish pandemic.

Face masks were very effective during the Spanish flu.
US cities that were strictly compliant in face mask wearing
did not have a second Spanish Flu wave. The masks worked
for severe acute respiratory syndrome and MERS, so why
Figure 8. Impact of speed on COVID-19 case rate growth. Image obtained were they not strongly recommended in the US during
from Akhmetzhanov et al. (2022). the COVID-19 pandemic onset? Part of the reason was
that the Strategic National Stockpile had only 12 million
X-axis is the Democratic/Republican leaning based on the N95 masks. It had once held more than a hundred million
congressional representative’s voting record. masks, but many were used during the 2009 H1N1 flu

If the death rates for the political parties had been the pandemic, and the supply was not replenished. Dr. Fauci
same, Trump would have won Arizona and Georgia in commented that he intentionally underplayed face masks
the 2020 Presidential election; however, he would have early in the pandemic due to their short supply and
still lost the election to Biden. These differences were the medical personnel’s urgent need. In April 2020, he told
result of the lack of mandates in some states, but also the the American public that face masks would help stifle the
lower Republican compliance with mandates. As shown pandemic.
in Figure 10, Republicans and Democrats behaved quite In February 2022, The New York Times reported that
differently. the number of weddings in the US dropped in 2020, from

Volume 11 Issue 5 (2025) 10 https://doi.org/10.36922/IJPS025110040