Does antimask sentiment spring from trauma?

In this Bluesky thread, journalist Sam Smith describes being in a California supermarket with many people masked up and everyone pretty subdued. He says, “I’ve talked a lot about how America never seemed to have a collective moment of grief over the mass traumatic event that has been & continues to be COVID.”

I’ve long thought that people in the West, particularly in the US, don’t know the importance of learning to grieve and are collectively bad at dealing with complex emotions. It all gets redirected into rage. Instead of collectively mourning lost lives and lost ways of living, the country chose anger over lockdowns, vaccines and masks which is rapidly becoming public policy. People who continue to take precautions are just reminders of loss and a terribly uncertain future.

Is that also why there’s not a lot of talk in the media about how much of wildfire smoke is full of hazardous toxins? I was in NYC when it was covered in smoke from Canadian wildfires and not many people were masked at all.