The “Mask-Slackers” of 1918

It was the first experience that most Americans had ever had with a global pandemic. The first known cases surfaced in March of 1918. By the summer, the pandemic was in full swing. Schools, churches, restaurants, bars, and places of business were forced to closed. And by the early fall, a number of cities had decided that they could open things again if everyone would just wear masks in public. Mandatory masking laws were passed throughout the nation, and newspapers printed instructions on “how to make masks [and] foil germs.”

The masks were made of gauze, as were most surgical masks of the day. And they immediately became controversial. Experts disagreed with each other about whether or not they stopped the flu. People complained that they could not breathe in masks and could not be expected to work while wearing them. Doctors claimed that masks were only helpful “in skilled hands” and that they were “apt to do ordinary people “more harm than good.”

But the social pressure to wear “flu masks” became enormous. People who did not wear…