But as far as I remember it, mask wearing was seen first as being something for paranoid conspiracy theorists, then selfish people, then the narrative was reversed.

Experts were invited on primetime TV to say masks are not recommended to the general public.

I distinctly remember arguing with educated people at work, online, with relatives, that masks should be worn in enclosed public places, months deep into the pandemic.

We would see old people, barely managing to walk, not wear masks while going grocery shopping, because government experts told them they didn't need to. All the while China was in total lockdown and victim counts exploding.

I fear most people would prefer to forget because they played a part in it and it makes them feel dumb. We might get collective amnesia, ensuring this part of the story never reaches the history books. We shouldn't be ashamed though, we've all been victims of misinformation and cultish behavior at one point, the important thing is to draw lessons from it.

In the right wing circles I was familiar with, they did talk about this, and were basically labelled conspiracy theorists or trolls. Then, if you remember, anti-Asian racists for associating it with China.

Masks were also ridiculed early in the pandemic, where authoritative recommendations were explicitly NOT to wear the mask [1]. Funnily enough, the response in said right-aligned communities was to wear masks. This flipped to opposition once govt recommendation flipped and mandates were implemented.

[1] https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/30/world/coronavirus-who-mas...

At the time, the surgeon general cautioned the general public to stop buying masks because, "they had not been proven effective in preventing the spread of coronavirus."

> https://gothamist.com/news/subway-train-operator-says-mta-wo...