May 18, 2020

Mask Wearing Is Becoming the New Normal

Here is the result of a poll taken a few days ago by YouGov for CBS News:

Roughly speaking, it looks like about 70 percent of Americans wear masks routinely when they leave the house. That’s not bad, and a number that high normalizes the behavior enough that it’s likely to increase over time.

This was on my mind because I was thinking about whether we’re headed for a big increase in COVID-19 cases thanks to the relaxation of social distancing restrictions. I think this is pretty likely, but if it doesn’t happen it will most likely be due to widespread mask wearing. Even as we ease off of other restrictions, mask wearing is the one thing that everyone still agrees about.

I hope this is something that’s currently under intense study, both here and in other countries. We need a better handle on which specific measures are most effective at stopping the spread of the virus, and it would certainly be useful to know just how effective mask wearing is even if you do nothing else.

Now just imagine how close to 100 percent we could get if our president and all our governors got on board…

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