Men are dying from covid-19 at far higher rates than women but ironically, men are less likely than women to wear face masks to protect against the virus because it’s “not cool,” a new study finds.
“Men more than women agree that wearing a face covering is shameful, not cool, a sign of weakness, and a stigma,” wrote Valerio Capraro and Hélène Barcelo, co-authors of a paper by researchers from the Mathematical Science Research Institute in Berkeley, Calif. and Middlesex University London in the U.K.
In the study, men reported less intention than women to wear face coverings, especially in counties where it isn’t mandatory. Men are also less likely to believe they’ll be seriously impacted by covid-19, despite data to the contrary.
This finding is “particularly ironic,” the researchers said, since men appear to be more severely impacted by the virus in places such as New York City, China, Italy, Spain, among others.
The study’s sample of 2,459 people is not the only one that found men reluctant to put on face coverings to protect against covid-19. A Gallup/Knight Foundation poll conducted on April 14-to-20 found that 29 percent of men said they had “always” worn a mask or cloth face covering outside their home in the past seven days, compared to 44 percent of women, Marketwatch reported.
The coronavirus has disproportionately affected African Americans, but some Black men have expressed concern about how they’ll be perceived and treated if they wear face masks.
Black men can’t wear face masks and not expect negative reactions, Jenice Armstrong wrote in a column for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
A Black doctor in Miami, Dr. Armen Henderson was wearing a surgical mask while loading supplies to test the homeless for covid-19 when he was arrested by Miami police. Video footage of an officer handcuffing Dr. Henderson went viral.
Reluctance by some Black men to wear a mask is “because of negative racial stereotypes that already exist that Black men are somehow threatening, criminal, and out to steal,” Armstrong wrote.
Mustafa Rashed, president of Bellevue Strategies, a Philly PR firm, told Armstrong that he’s already acutely aware of how he gets treated while dressed in a suit vs. workout gear.
Wearing a mask is “not going to be nonthreatening. It’s not. Because I’m a Black man in America and putting on a mask gives me an undesired anonymity, and that’s just real,” he told her.
Reports of being cursed at for wearing a mask have made national news.
“Wearing a mask is for smug liberals. Refusing to is for reckless Republicans.” That was the headline on a recent Politico article by Ryan Lizza and Daniel Lippman.
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 70: Jamarlin Martin Jamarlin goes solo to discuss the COVID-19 crisis. He talks about the failed leadership of Trump, Andrew Cuomo, CDC Director Robert Redfield, Surgeon General Jerome Adams, and New York Mayor de Blasio.
On Monday, the White House belatedly introduced a policy of mask-wearing in the West Wing but President Donald Trump is exempt. “Trump demands protection from everybody around him, but nobody is protected from Trump,” Frank Bruni wrote in a New York Times opinion piece.
“Protective masks, God help us, are tribal totems,” Bruni wrote.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advise Americans to wear masks in public and to self-quarantine after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for covid-19.
“If racial profiling occurs during times of normalcy, one can only hypothesize that wearing a mask while Black during this most trying of times can occur,” said Chad Dion Lassiter, executive director of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.
