To Mask or Not to Mask – That is not a question! A tragic tale of science-denial, ignorance, and politics

I remember my six-year-old niece admonishing me to cover my sneeze with my arm and not my hands, she further patiently explained to me that it is the same as doctors wearing masks to protect themselves and their patients. I was suitably impressed with her understanding of infections spreading through the nose and mouth. So, it feels very strange to be writing this article for grown-ups; in times that are noteworthy for scientific growth and in a country known for technological and scientific advancement.
As per the latest updates, the pandemic has become a United States centric discussion as it is very difficult to explain how 4% of the world’s population living in USA is contributing 20% of total cases in the world and 20% of the total deaths by COVID.

Social behavior: It determines how the pandemic progresses
My education in microbiology gives me an understanding of infectious diseases and some knowledge of the progression of this pandemic. What has become the biggest puzzle to me is the behavioral change in the people of America, compared to other countries as the pandemic progressed. As the world learnt more about how to deal with the spread of the Coronavirus, we in the United States seem to get more confused and helpless about it. So much so, that now we question the efficacy of masks in preventing the spread of an airborne contagion that infects through the respiratory tract, mainly nose and mouth.
This strange behavior does have its reasons, and they range from the bizarre to the mundane, namely science-denial, ignorance, and politics. The more dangerous being science-denial and politics, that can have far reaching consequences.

Science-denial: It is not about science at all
A pandemic is an unbelievably bad time to indulge in science denial, as the virus is not affected by it, but it will definitely endanger lives. To say that you do not believe in rain during a rainstorm will not make the rain stop.
Science-denial is less about science and more about deep fears and core personal identity. As per Wikipedia, denialism is a person’s choice to deny reality as a way to avoid a psychologically uncomfortable truth. In the sciences, denialism is the rejection of basic facts and concepts that are undisputed, well-supported parts of the scientific consensus on a subject, in favor of radical and controversial ideas.
The biggest negative impact of science-denial has been to first deny the existence of a pandemic and then aid its spread by raising doubts about the efficacy of using masks.
172 observational studies across 16 countries and six continents showed that transmission of viruses was lower with physical distancing of 1 m or more, face mask use resulted in a large reduction in risk of infection and eye protection was also associated with lower infection rates. Unfortunately, science-denial will refute all this evidence.

Ignorance is not bliss in a pandemic
There are many levels of ignorance that are at work in this pandemic. The first is ignorance about this new virus that is not known to the medical community and they are learning while treating their patients. The healthcare professionals are trying hard to use their newly acquired knowledge to save more lives.
The second is the ignorance of the lay person in dealing with this new infectious agent. This ignorance is understandable as a pandemic of this proportion is a once-in-a lifetime experience and dealing with it requires specific information. As the pandemic progressed, this information has been quickly gathered and disseminated by the media to empower the lay person to protect themselves and their family from the virus.
However, even after a good understanding of how to prevent the spread of the virus has been achieved, this knowledge is ignored by people due to science-denial or political bias.
Political ideology can corrupt the mind and science
Research from a team in political science at Syracuse University, has found that political party bias is a better predictor of mask use than any other factor they measured. The team compared people of the same age and living in the same ZIP code and found partisan differences in mask behavior. As per one of the researchers “The big takeaway of all of the data is that partisanship is the big determinant of all of the behavior,” she said. “It’s not age. It’s not where you live.”
Another study analyzing partisanship in social distancing behavior studied a total of nearly 650,000 responses revealing not only that partisanship is more important than public health concerns for explaining individuals’ social distancing, but also that the effect of partisanship has grown over time amongst one party followers. This kind of politically biased social behavior in a pandemic will result in serious loss of life.
Trusting Science is the only way forward
The wide prevalence of science-denial and the politically influenced dangerous social behavior even compelled one of the most respected and prestigious science journals namely The New England Journal of Medicine to write an editorial veering away from science and commenting on the failure of the political leadership in handling this pandemic. This only hints at the frustration of the scientific community and the healthcare professionals who are putting their lives on the line in this pandemic.
The end of this pandemic is in the hands of the scientific community as they develop an effective and safe vaccine to combat this pandemic. The only way forward is to aid the scientific and healthcare community and keep infections as low as possible. Following the safety rules of social distancing and face masks are the only way forward.

Written by Anu Darbha