Masking during Spanish Influenza

From the earliest recognition that a more deadly form of influenza was spreading quickly in fall 1918, US public health authorities recommended masks for doctors, nurses, and anyone taking care of influenza patients.

Newspapers provided instructions on “How to Make Masks at Home” and published photographs of masked nurses. Masks were just one of the “non-pharmaceutical interventions” or “social distancing” policies, to use modern terms, adopted to contain the epidemic, along with closing schools, prohibiting public gatherings, and advising changes in personal behavior.

However, many people refused to wear them during the Spanish Flu of 1918, saying that government-mandated mask enforcement violated their civil liberties. An “Anti-Mask League” was even formed in San Francisco to protest the legislation.