If you read the newspapers of the time, it tells a very different story. In Pennsylvania for instance because the coal and steel was needed for the war effort, the government forced people to go to work even when they were ill. People were dropping dead everywhere, including children, and the solution was they set up FEMA type camps with giant tents.

Oh and they increased immigration because they needed more workers.

The "they worse masks then" was complete and totally made up based on a few pictures and a couple of situations in California I believe.