Why Londoners in the blitz accepted face masks to prevent infection – unlike today’s objectors: As COVID-19 spread in Britain, journalists and politicians took to comparing the pandemic to the blitz. From the “blitz spirit” to the death toll, the German bombing campaign in the second world war has become a go-to for evaluating Britain’s response to the current crisis.
But some historians have questioned the usefulness of blitz comparisons. Coronavirus does not reduce buildings to rubble. Sunny references to the “blitz spirit” conveniently overlook the looting that accompanied the blackouts. And though the death rates of the blitz and COVID-19 look roughly equal – the blitz saw deaths of around 43,000 while COVID-19 has killed nearly 45,000 – it’s unclear how this statistic is of much use. There is drama in this comparison, but not much substance.
An under-regarded but critical player in this comparison is the humble mask, an object that helps to show not how similar our moment is to the blitz, but how divorced. Mask-wearing was, in 1941, a completely uncontentious and even patriotic activity.
