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Are you still wearing a mask even as COVID cases drop?
- Yes
- No
- Sometimes
A newly released Monmouth University poll found that since vaccines became more prevalent, public anxiety about contracting COVID-19 plummeted, though nearly half of Americans are still choosing to continue wearing facial coverings.
Even with one in five adults continuing to refuse to get the shot, the new poll also found that nearly four in 10 Americans have not changed their mask-wearing habits, even with updated guidance not making non-mandatory under the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance.
According to the poll, concerns about a family member falling seriously ill from COVID-19 have dipped to an all-time low of 42 percent after peaking at 83 percent and 67 percent earlier this year.
The number of Americans who said they are “very concerned” about a family falling ill has also dropped from 40 percent to 23 percent in March after hitting 60 percent in January, the poll found.
“Vaccine access is certainly behind this sharp drop in Covid anxiety. The public is not saying we are out of the woods, but the sense of uncertainty is lifting,” Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute said.
Pollsters said that “partisan identity is one characteristic that shows a significant difference in the rate of decline over COVID illness concerns, although this is partly due to the fact that Republicans already started out with lower levels of anxiety."
Percentages of those who are very concerned about a family member getting a serious illness have dropped by 47 points among Democrats since January (from 79 percent to 32 percent) and by approximately 40 points among independents (from 55 percent to 15 percent). It has declined by the smallest number of 21 points among Republicans (from 41 percent to 20 percent).
“We have seen this trend since vaccines became available,” Murray noted. “Opposition to getting the shot will not budge without stronger and more consistent messaging from GOP leaders about taking the vaccine.
“However, it might be too late at this point since Republican distrust in the efficacy of Covid vaccines is abysmally low.”
Pollsters found that six in 10 Americans trust new CDC guidance on the need to wear face masks, although this is divided between 29 percent who have a "great deal of trust" and 32 percent who have "some trust."
Another 10 percent of those polls have not much trust in the new guidance and 27 percent say they do not trust it at all.
“Most of the public may trust the scientific aspects of the CDC guidance on mask-wearing. It is not clear, though, how much they – especially those who are already vaccinated – trust their fellow Americans to abide by that guidance,” Murray added. “The difficulty with instituting an honor system is it’s already toothless when a significant chunk of the public was disregarding the rules to begin with.”
The Monmouth University poll was conducted over the phone between Wednesday, June 9 through Monday, June 14 with 810 adults responding from across the country. The complete poll can be found here.
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