Trump May Have Covid, but Many of His Supporters Still Scoff at Masks

On the contrary, Trump loyalists echoed misinformation that the president has spread for much of the year, as he has sought to minimize the threat of the virus to aid his re-election.

Voters who support the president falsely claimed that data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on deaths and cases were wrong, that getting the virus was no worse than getting the flu, and that it was introduced and kept in the spotlight only by Mr. Trump’s Democratic opponents.

“Who do you think brought this into the country?” said Mr. Girvin, who has shared posts on Facebook that independent fact checkers have labeled misinformation. “Joe Biden has enough nerve to say Donald Trump’s killing people? No. The far-left liberals are causing this. The Pelosis, the Soroses and all these people, that’s who caused it. And I wish them all the worst.”

As interviews with Mr. Girvin and others make clear, Mr. Trump has managed to politicize science during a public health crisis, something that historians will likely look back on as a defining aspect of the coronavirus pandemic.

Scoffing at masks, social distancing and crowd avoidance — all measures recommended by health experts, including in the Trump administration — has become a test of loyalty for fervent supporters of the president, who mocked Mr. Biden’s masks during their debate last week and, on returning to the White House on Monday from the hospital, ripped his off, despite being highly contagious.