I am more convinced than ever that the COVID-19 pandemic was totally politicized by two extremes that simply did not reflect the opinion of the majority of Americans.
I really started to notice this last year when I visited a café for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak.
A Jewish media colleague was in from Israel, so we had coffee at a vegetarian café in Capitol Hill. I mention it’s vegetarian only to make clear that the location and cuisine made it extremely likely that most of the patrons leaned left.
Yet the place was packed, not a mask in sight. This was during the Delta outbreak, after the brief lull when we thought vaccines prevented transmission.
I started to pay closer attention. When mask mandates were lifted, most people at my grocery store — a branch with a racially and socio-economically diverse clientele — stopped wearing them. At sports events — again, attendees being an extremely diverse group — mask compliance was very low.
Yet many media — and especially social media — continued to purvey a simplistic narrative that progressives or liberals were all fully supportive of pandemic measures while conservatives flouted them.
The picture was that Democrats wear masks, Republicans don’t. Democrats are all vaccinated. Republicans aren’t.
Even now, when the federal mask mandate on public transportation has been lifted, some especially loud social media users continue to peddle this false narrative: Mask wearers, good; others, bad.
There’s little scientific evidence to back this position (especially considering that the mandate never specified the quality of mask required). Most European countries had already lifted such mandates, and even ours was set to expire around three weeks after the Florida judge issued her ruling.
The evidence is clear to anyone who can see: The majority of the population followed the mandate. But when it was lifted, most chose not to wear one. Some will continue to (in fact, I am one), making their own risk assessment. But contrary to the pro and anti noise makers on either side, it wasn’t a strongly partisan issue.
For me, the lesson to be learned has nothing to do with masks, but with how the supposed polarization of the American populace is not necessarily an authentic reflection of Americans. We’re allowing the loudest voices to drown us out and they poison society with their toxicity.
The silent majority is huge — and it shouldn’t allow the noisiest ones to control the conversation or set policy.
Shana Goldberg may be reached at [email protected].
