Clearly, our discomfort about wearing masksin the midst ofa pandemic has deep roots.

Bad smells and bird beaks

Medical mask-wearing has a long history. In the past few months, pictures of thebeaked masks that doctors wore during the 17th-century plague epidemichave been circulating online. At the time, disease was believed to spread through miasmas bad smells that wafted through the air. The beak was stuffed with herbs, spices and dried flowers to ward off the odors believed to spread the plague.

In North America, before the 1918 influenza epidemic, surgeons wore masks, as did nurses and doctors who were treating contagious patients in a hospital setting. But during the flu epidemic, cities around the world passed mandatory masking orders. Historian Nancy Tomes argues that mask-wearing was embraced by the American public as an emblem of public spiritedness and discipline.

Canadian reluctance and Japanese willingness

The Medical Officer of Health for Edmonton reported that practically no one wore a mask thereafter, except in hospitals. In his view, the rapid spread of the disease after the mask order was put into effect made the order an object of ridicule.

In Japan, by contrast, the public embraced mask-wearing during the Spanish flu. According to sociologistMitsutoshiHorii,mask-wearing symbolized modernity.In the post-war era, Japanese people continued to wear masks to prevent the flu, only stopping in the 1970s when flu vaccines became widely available. In the 1980s and 1990s, mask-wearing increased to prevent allergies,as allergy to cedar pollen became a growing problem. In the late 1980s, the effectiveness of flu vaccinations declined and wearing a mask to avoid influenza resumed.

Mask-wearing skyrocketed in the early years of the 21st century with the outbreak of SARS and avian influenza. The Japanese government recommended that all sick people wear masks to protect others, while they suggested that healthy people could wear them as a preventative measure. Horii argues that mask-wearing was a neoliberal answer to the question of public health policy in that it encouraged people to take individual responsibility for their own health.

A century of Chinese mask-wearing

One of the first cases of COVID-19 in Canada was that of astudent at Western Universitywho had visited her parents in Wuhan over the Christmasbreak.On the flight back to Canada, she wore a mask. She self-isolated upon her arrival in Canada and when she became sick, she showed up at the hospital wearing a mask. She did not infect anyone else.

But support for mask-wearingappears to be growing. In the face of a serious health threat, Canadians are wisely following the lead of Asian countries.

Catherine Carstairs is aProfessor in the University of GuelphsDepartment of History.

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A History of Masks From the Black Plague to Coronavirus - The National Interest