The graph below tallies the total number of links each day that mentioned the English word “mask” as part of the link text across 49.9 billion link records from over 50,000 worldwide news outlet homepages since the start of this year through GDELT’s Global Frontpage Graph. Mask mentions began to rise around Jan. 23, surging vertically from Mar. 17 and peaking on Apr. 4. Mentions faded rapidly starting Apr. 5 through a local minimum on Jun. 15 before surging since. Though, noticeably from Jul. 5 through Jul. 10 there was a sharp dip in mentions.