Over the past week, many states have hit the brakes on opening up as COVID-19 cases have spiked.
As of June 25, 18 states and an increasing number of cities and towns have implemented laws that required face masks in public. Most recent states requiring facemasks include: North Carolina, Nevada and Washington. More locally, towns like Greenville, Charleston, Columbia and Clemson have mandated facemasks after Gov. Henry McMaster said he will not require masks to be worn in public in South Carolina.
There has been an uproar on social media regarding facemasks with a 52.1% negative sentiment rate consisting of posts trying to shame people into wearing masks in public and a debate on if masks are actually beneficial to your health.
There are also many complaints that masks are uncomfortable and restrict oxygen levels. The other 47.9% positively reflect how masks can affect your health. Other posts regarding positive sentiment include different fabric styles and different companies responding to the mask requirement.
Masks are most talked about in the United States (68.2%), India (4.7%) and the United Kingdom (3.5%), where COVID-19 cases, and deaths, are currently the highest. Languages that are currently discussing masks are English (67.4%), Spanish (16%), and French (2.4%).
There is no real peak to the mask trend on social media as posts have stayed varied and consistent. However, there is a depression in the graph that matches up to when states began to phase open up and masks were no longer required. The trend spikes back up when COVID-19 cases also rose. Top three words include #covid19, masks and wear.
Overall the talk about masks amounted to a total 37 million posts, of which 94.4% came from Twitter. About 2 million posts using the hashtag, #masks, came from Instagram and there are many groups on Facebook specifically for selling and making masks. Debate on comfort of mask aside, mask up and stay safe out there, masks are shown to stop the spread of COVID-19 by up to 70%.
