The virus that causes COVID-19 is, as we all know by now, terribly infectious. The most recent surge in post-holiday cases last week made that fact clear to Hawaii.

While by no means a compensation for that, it’s at least helpful that one protective strategy can be catching, too.

Wearing a mask. According to a study published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine, what makes wearing a face covering more appealing to people is their sense that others will be wearing them, too.

President-elect Joe Biden hopes to capitalize on this, and has pledged to push for a nationwide mask mandate for the first 100 days of his term. If he follows through, that campaign lies only a few short weeks away after he is inaugurated Jan. 20.

Biden has said he believes there would be a “significant reduction” in infection cases if every American would wear a mask for an extended period.

The science suggests he’s right; even though cloth face coverings don’t completely insulate the wearer from exposure, they do lower the overall level of virus in surrounding areas, so infection rates generally drop. Unfortunately, mask-wearing has been overtaken by politics in the divisive election year that just concluded.

It’s doubtful that this political linkage can be overcome entirely — the violent upheaval on Capitol Hill on Wednesday underscores that — but even so, efforts to strengthen the cachet of masking would be worthwhile.

There is the aesthetic approach. Fashion designers have been in the masking game, almost since the pandemic restrictions began, 10 months ago.

They can project personality, in the way that bumper stickers do. Slogans and images, fun or otherwise, have become a way to raise the “cool factor” of the masks.

But perhaps an avenue to try is to make masking a show of patriotism. This is a century-old idea — wearing masks was seen as a symbol of patriotic duty during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918.

The same logic ought to apply to the coronavirus, because sacrificing that small piece of independence is repaid by the benefit to Americans more broadly.

And the simple fact of the COVID-19 risks ought to help to sell the mandate. If a cluster of infections can happen in a hospital, as it did at The Queen’s Medical Center, this is plainly a dangerous disease. Common sense ought to apply, if nothing else does.