During the Spanish flu pandemic, there were many orders which the people were given, and mask wearing was one of them:
“Streetcar conductors and conductorettes (as female drivers were known) all wore masks to prevent infection.”
“The Boston Police Department distributed 1,700 masks to their officers to wear when they were on duty.”
“Seattle policemen lined up in their gauze masks.”
Gauze masks were marketed by the propaganda as being the ones which are 99% effective and that one should wear them to protect oneself, and others. Sounds familiar?
Masks were worn at workplaces, whether you worked inside in an office or outside as a postman:
Some, like some did during COVID-19, went further to look more stupid and wear masks which were more stupid than the stupid masks which the general public was wearing:
Children were obliged to wear masks too:
The propaganda succeeded in making sports people wear masks while practising sports too:
Some went further in the stupidity to even mask their pet:
Fearmongering from the health authorities at the time was also the trick. “The New York Health Board’s stance regarding wearing masks was: ‘Better be ridiculous than dead.'”
Some smoked while wearing a mask too:
The irony is that the propaganda had told them that being outside and getting fresh air would prevent them from getting the flu. Try to figure it out.
“In San Francisco, court was held in a park in an attempt to curb the spread of the deadly flu.”
“At the influenza camp in Lawrence, Maine, patients were prescribed fresh air as a treatment.”
“Each day, women from the Department of War gathered for a 15-minute morning walk, in the hopes that the fresh air would ward off the flu.”
“In 1919, these Red Cross nurses in Boston prepared bundles of masks to be distributed to soldiers. Meanwhile, other nurses were tasked with making the masks.”
There even were mask contests:
And if you did not wear a mask, you were not allowed in. Here is a photo of a Seattle streetcar conductor turning “one commuter away because he wasn’t wearing a face mask”.
And finally, you found those who lovingly complied to the dictatorship commands and advocated mask wearing. Here are two men in Paris in 1919 wearing flu masks and advocating for others to do the same:
Sounds familiar?