(WWJ) The CDC recommends you wear a face mask or cloth face covering when in public to slow the spread of COVID-19.
However, two recents poll by the Gallup/Knight Foundation found America is divided over wearing one.
The surveys of U.S. adults found mask usage is split about equally three ways: 36% say they "always" wear a mask when in public, 32% say "sometimes", and 31% say "never."
Women are more likely to wear a mask in public than men: 44% of women say they always wear one, 31% sometimes, and 25% never.
On the other hand; 29% of men say they always put on a mask when going out, 34% sometimes, and 38% never.
“Heavy news consumers” and people who say they have “high trust in scientists and journalists” were nearly twice as likely to wear a mask than those who tuned into the news less often.
Some other findings:
The number of COVID-19 deaths in the area a person lives had only a small effect on whether they chose to mask-up.
In a community where few lives were lost to the coronavirus; 34% of people said they always wear a mask.
That is compared to 42% in places with a “medium” number of deaths; and 39% in areas with a "high" number of deaths.
Age had a moderate impact on the results.
37% of adults 18-34 years old said they always wear a mask in public. That number goes up to 41% for people 35-54.
More than half of respondents over the age of 55 said they always put on a mask in public.
Researchers at the Gallup/Knight Foundation found the CDC’s initial recommendation for healthy people not to wear a mask may have deterred people from trusting its effectiveness and confused them with “mixed messaging.”
However, the CDC said they issued the initial recommendation before they understood the role of asymptomatic spread in COVID-19.
“This means the virus could spread among people in close proximity…for example, coughing, speaking or sneezing, even if those people were not symptomatic,” Surgeon General Jerome Adams said in a Coronavirus Task Force Briefing in April.
You can hear WWJ Health Reporter Dr. Deanna Lites’ full report here.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed an Executive Order to require Michigan residents to wear “a homemade face covering” when in “enclosed public spaces” including the grocery store and pharmacy.