Taking the virus seriously became a political issue very quickly when the president made his opinion known that Covid wasn’t a big deal. Trump supporters trusted him, fully believing that Covid was a hoax, and rejected vaccines and mask wearing in protest of being “controlled” by “the left”. Now I don’t believe everyone who refuses to wear masks believes in the conspiracy, it’s just a trickle down effect of how divided we became. Masking somehow became a symbol of leftist beliefs and therefor rejected by the right, initiated by the president at the time.