Masks Mandates for Spanish Flu and COVIDMasks Mandates for Spanish Flu and COVID

Creator: Alexi Bostley ’22 Public Health

Politics and presidency play a huge role in Americans’ response to an infectious disease outbreak. This map shows the relationship between each state’s political party affiliation and the presence of a mask mandate for Covid-19, as of August 2020. The Republican states are shown in red and the Democratic states are shown in blue. A black star represents a state that had a mask mandate, whereas a black circle represents a state that had no mask requirement for people in public areas. President Trump has contributed to many negative opinions regarding mask wearing. This includes stating that masks are voluntary at the beginning of the pandemic, as well as making fun of other political figures for taking mask wearing seriously. The Covid-19 pandemic took place during one of the most influential presidential elections that the United State’s has seen. As the map shows, all of the states that voted Democrat in the 2020 election, besides Georgia which is a historically Republican state, had mask mandates put in place. The map depicts a large overlap between states that are conservative and states that did not have a mask mandate as of August 2020. This could be due to conservative feelings of the government infringing on personal liberty and body autonomy, or many Republicans listening to President Trump’s anti-mask comments.

Works Cited:

Kim, Allen, et al. “These Are the States Requiring People to Wear Masks When Out in Public.” CNN, Cable News Network, 17 Aug. 2020, www.cnn.com/2020/06/19/us/states-face-mask-coronavirus-trnd/index.html.

“Understanding the Election: AP.” Associated Press, www.ap.org/media-center/understanding-the-election.