Political polarisation impedes the public policy response to COVID-19: As the use of face masks has been shown to effectively diminish the
spread of COVID-19 without hampering economic activity, it should be
among the least controversial public policy responses to the pandemic.
This column shows, however, that mask usage is strongly associated with
political partisanship in the US. Using various research designs, it
finds that localities which voted for Trump in 2016 are significantly
less likely to wear masks, even if mask wearing is mandated. Leadership
is shown to matter as well – tweets with positive sentiment towards
masks surged after Trump wore a mask in public the first time.
