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US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a press conference at the White House on May 20. (Yonhap News)

The “face mask” debate in the US refuses to die down. Even as the US faces a historic catastrophe with over 100,000 dead from the novel coronavirus, the thing that keeps getting talked about day after day, bizarrely enough, is President Donald Trump not wearing a mask.

As the pandemic has worsened, masks have overcome resistance by the US public to establish themselves as part of daily life. As recently as March, it was rare to see people in the US walking around in masks. Ever since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) came out in early April with an official recommendation to wear face coverings, however, there’s been a sharp increase in the number of people wearing masks or wrapping their faces in handkerchiefs when they go to the store, or even out for a walk. These days, of course, you can’t go into a grocery store without a mask on. For a time, the items were rare, and people had to ask around to find masks for around US$7-8 apiece. Today, you can buy one -- albeit a dental mask -- for under a dollar on Amazon. As the country passes the peak of the outbreak, masks have been adopted far and wide.

The reason for wearing a mask isn’t complicated -- it's to protect ourselves and others from getting infected with the virus. Health authorities have recognized that they have some effect in preventing the virus’s spread. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, went even further, explaining that he wears a mask because he wants to “make it be a symbol for people to see that that's the kind of thing you should be doing.” He was referring to masks as a symbol to raise awareness that everyone is working together from where they are to adopt the necessary disease prevention measures in these difficult times. Because of this, many Americans have continued wearing the masks, fighting their own feelings of discomfort and aversion and their beliefs about the infringement of personal freedoms.

It’s a simple issue that Trump has made very complicated. His attitude has resulted in masks becoming politicized. The day the government issued its recommendation to cover faces, Trump said he would not be doing it; since then, he has stubbornly stuck to his promise. Apart from the one time he was photographed by the press wearing a mask in an Arizona factory, he has been openly shunning masks in public settings. He has also retweeted messages by others mocking former Vice President Joe Biden, Trump’s opponent in the 2020 presidential election, for wearing a mask. Trump views masks as making him appear vulnerable to the virus and conflicting with his emphasis on normalizing the economy.

Trump has even taken to referring to masks an issue of “political correctness.” When asked a question by a reporter who was wearing a mask at the White House on May 26, he replied, “Can you take it off, because I cannot hear you?” He went on to say, “OK, you want to be politically correct.” In the 2016 presidential election, Trump was elected after positioning himself as opposite to the “political correctness” of Washington politics and representing the anti-immigration sentiments held by some Americans. For him, masks are just a matter of awkward hypocrisy.

The conflicting messages from health authorities regarding mask recommendations and Trump’s dogged rejection of masks haven’t just made disease control more difficult -- they've exacerbated the country’s political divisions. A survey recently administered by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a public health policy research institution, showed 89% of Democratic Party supporters reporting that they wore masks when they went out, but only 58% of Republican Party supporters. Rush Limbaugh, a far-right radio host who received a Presidential Medal of Freedom from Trump, described masks as a left-wing symbol designed to encourage fear and hesitation in the face of the virus.

Even within the Republican Party, there have been appeals, with Ohio Governor Mike DeWine stressing that the issue was “not about whether you’re liberal or conservative, left or right, Republican or Democrat.” But this has fallen on deaf ears with Trump and his followers. It may take the “second wave” that experts have been warning about falling just before the election in November for him to start reaching for his mask.

By Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]