Campus Protesters Mocked for Wearing COVID Masks

Conservatives hearkening back to the COVID-19 pandemic are condemning the use of face masks by pro-Palestinian protesters across the United States.

Protests from coast to coast have engulfed the nation. Countless students at various colleges and universities have demonstrated in different-sized efforts to urge for a ceasefire in Gaza in response to the continued violence resulting from Hamas' October 7 attacks against Israel that led to over 1,200 deaths and another 200 people taken hostage. More than 34,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza since the war began, the Associated Press reported, citing local health officials.

Protesters at New York City's Columbia University, the Ivy League school that has drawn arguably the most attention due to the length of the demonstrations, set up a "Gaza Solidarity Encampment" with supporters of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement calling on the school to divest from Israel.

Other protests have occurred at the University of Texas at Austin, Northwestern University, the University of Southern California, the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), George Washington University and others.

Scenes at the protests have included countless participants whose faces have been covered with face masks or other materials. Some surmise it is due to students and others involved wanting to hide their facial features and identities in a bid to dodge punishment or any repercussions from their respective institutions—as well as any legal jeopardy or loss of employment.

Some scenes, including at New York University, have shown faculty members also wearing face masks outdoors. Across the country, on the Golden Gate Bridge, individuals donned in masks blocked all traffic.

"The extent as to how the I-95 [sic] medical covid mask became integrated into left wing protest culture cannot be understated," conservative commentator Stephen Miller wrote on X, in reference to video from George Washington University law school faculty wearing masks.

"FL Police Department is not playing and deployed multiple rounds of tear gas and rubber bullets on protesters at the University of South Florida," said another conservative X user. "I'm glad they have the Covid mask on."

One protester wearing a black mask was asked by one individual about why she was wearing it, to which she replied, "We're still living in a pandemic." The protester added that it's not uncommon for protesters in general to wear masks.

The use of masks has also been ridiculed by Jonathan Greenblatt, president of the Anti-Defamation League.

"No masks on campus!" Greenblatt said in a video posted on X while surveying the Columbia protests himself. "This isn't Fallujah. This is Morningside Heights."

In February 2021, a published study detailed how face masks impacted society in terms of combating coronavirus. Anti-mask attitudes had opposite reactions.

"Network analyses indicated that negative attitudes about masks formed an intercorrelated network, with the central nodes in the network being beliefs that masks are ineffective in preventing COVID-19; and psychological reactance (i.e., an aversion to being forced to wear masks)," the study says in part. "These central nodes served as links, connecting the network of anti-masks attitudes to negative attitudes toward SARSCoV2 vaccination, beliefs that the threat of COVID-19 has been exaggerated, disregard for social distancing, and political conservatism."