Not sure why you’re being downvoted. Historically, a competitive framing has made it much easier for States to motivate their populace. A friendly competition over who does better in fighting a common enemy would absolutely have made everyone be more careful and wear masks more often (it would be seen as a patriotic duty).

Instead we have a POTUS constantly downplaying the threat, accusing China of being responsible for deliberately infecting the rest of the world with this (supposedly nonexistent?!) threat and masking is seen as treading “freedoms”.