(CNN) — Scientific evidence suggests that wearing a face mask may help stop the spread of covid-19. New surveys confirm that some regions of U.S they are taking this message more seriously than others.
Specifically, residents of the Northeast, led by New York, claimed that they wear face masks in a significantly higher percentage than most of the country.
This is the finding of aggregated data from more than 6,000 people who responded to the Ipsos Knowledge Panel survey conducted for Axios (Axios / Ipsos poll). Over the past month and a half (May 8 to June 22), a stable range of 48% to 51% of Americans told the pollster that they wore face masks whenever they left their homes. Other pollsters, who have asked similar questions during the same period, have shown figures Similar usually.
In the Axios / Ipsos survey you can clearly see how far ahead New York is (among the 28 states for which there were at least 75 respondents) and the Mid-Atlantic region (look here all subsets of the census) from the northeast when it comes to wearing masks. Of the more than 750 Mid-Atlantic respondents, 64% say they always wear masks when they go out. As Ipsos did in a recent poll with The Washington Post, They were also able to deepen at the state level in some cases.
The Northeast leads the use of masks
Source: Axios / Ipsos
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In New York, 67% say they wear a mask at all times when they leave their home. That’s the highest percentage for any state in which at least 75 people were surveyed.
In fact, the Acela corridor in general it is leading the use of masks in the country. At least 60% of residents in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland indicated that they always wore masks.
New York and its surroundings were the most affected by the pandemic of coronavirus A few months ago, so it should come as no surprise that there is now a clear clear move to stop any possible recurrence.
The only other state in the country where more than 60% of residents said they always wore masks was California (64%). The Pacific division (which is primarily made up of California) has the highest proportion of the public wearing masks outside of the Northeast (58%). This is primarily a California phenomenon, as in fact less than 50% said they wore masks in the other states (Oregon and Washington) of the Pacific division for which there is a sample of at least 75 respondents.
As a general rule, other parts of the country do not adhere to the use of masks like the Northeast. The central part of the country in particular seems adverse to the use of face masks.
Fewer than 50% of people in the Midwest (Northeast Center and Northwest) say they always wear a mask outside the home. The use of masks at all times when leaving the house of 34% is quite limited in the Central Northwest division.
The other two areas where mask use is significantly less than average are the Montaña region in the west and the Centro Sureste in the south. Fewer than 40% of those interviewed in any of those divisions told Ipsos that they always put on the mask when they were away from home.
Finally, the other southern divisions (South Atlantic and Central Southwest) have an average use of masks. This includes Florida and Texas, which are within the margin of error of the national percentage in terms of wearing masks in public.
When the survey information is compared with current transmission rates, the result is generally consistent with the growing scientific consensus that the use of masks slows down the spread of the coronavirus. We are dealing with small samples in the case of many probe states and there are many potential confounding variables, so I don’t want to dwell too much on this.
However, when we limit ourselves to the 28 states in which we have a sample size of 75 or more people, there does seem to be a correlation between reproduction rate (averaged over the aggregate period in which the Axios / Ipsos survey was in the field) and the percentage of those who reported wearing masks. Rates above 1 mean that each infected person is infecting more than 1 additional person on average, while rates below 1 mean that each infected person is infecting less than 1 additional person on average.
In states where the reproduction rate is greater than 1, an average of 42% of respondents say they always wear a mask when they leave the house. On the other hand, states where the reproduction rate is less than 1 have an average of 51%, which says that they always use facial protection outside the home.
States that use masks the most have less virus transmission
This graph includes the 28 states for which there was a sufficient sample size to separate separately. The sample sizes for each of those states range from 75 to 764 respondents.
Source: Axios / Ipsos and rt.live
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The relationship is far from perfect, but it is clearly evident. Some states with above average mask wear have a reproduction rate greater than 1 (for example California). This is what you might expect in this type of simple exercise that revolves around a complex problem. When you examine other ways of looking at the spread, you find similar correlations. This includes observing the percentage change in cases and the percentage change of positive cases over the last month and a half compared to the beginning of the year as well as a very wide view at the census division level compared to the reproduction rate.
This is potentially another small indication that masks help in the fight to prevent covid-19 from spreading.
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