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As the Spanish flu swept the world in 1918 and 1919, masks became ubiquitous to help prevent the spread of the disease, just as it does today during a coronavirus pandemic. However, many refused to appear in 1918, saying that the masks required by the government violated their civil liberties. An "Anti-Mask League" was even founded in the city of San Francisco to protest the legislation, the meeting of which gathered more than 5,000 people.

Men were the most foul: they did not practice proper personal hygiene, coughed on purpose or spit, and also thought that wearing masks was a "little woman" thing. This made the male population the weak links in hygiene discipline during the 1918 pandemic, according to a 2010 report published in the US National Library of Medicine.

It was there that a thinking head among American public health officials at the time decided to rename "personal hygiene" as a demonstration of patriotism and duty to encourage men to wear masks.

This is yet another example of a bad historical rhyme and shows that some things never change. Fast forward to the present day, we have pandemic protests and anti-quarantine and anti-mask collectives, with people refusing to wear masks and citing their civil liberties as a reason to challenge public health orders.