In a special article from The Rural Blog, the COVID States Project has shared new data showing rural Americans are the least likely to wear a mask, as well as less likely to know what kind of mask to get.
From the story: “Researchers surveyed over 17,000 individuals nationwide about their mask usage between Dec. 27, 2021 and Jan. 10, 2022. When asked what type of mask they wear, rural Americans—like all other population groups—were most likely to wear a cloth mask or other fabric barrier. But rural Americans were more than four times as likely as city dwellers to wear no mask at all.
Though 63% of rural Americans knew that N95 of equivalent masks offer more protection than cloth masks, that was the lowest percentage of any population group. Rural Americans were the most likely (29%) to be unsure about whether cloth masks or N95 masks offer more protection.”
As the winter surge of the COVID Omicron variant continues, it is more than likely that masks will be in use for much longer than anticipated. Knowing what kind of mask to have is one way to protect yourself against COVID, as well as colds and flu.
To read the rest of the story and see the data, click here.
SOURCE: The Rural Blog