On
March 25, Hawaii will become the 50th and final state to lift indoor mask
requirements. Other mandates still exist. The Transportation Security Administration recently extended
until April 13 the federal transportation mask mandate on planes, trains, buses, and in airports
while the CDC revises its framework for mask requirements. Schools are special
cases; in some states, the state mandates mask wearing in classrooms, while in
others, the districts are in charge of the guidelines. Some states — like
Florida and Texas — have banned school districts from requiring masks.

The line graph below — from Axios/Ipsos’s weekly tracking of COVID attitudes and behaviors — gives us a fascinating picture of how Americans’ attitudes about masks changed over the course of the pandemic. From mid-May 2020 until late June, around half of Americans said they wore masks all the time when leaving home. From July 2020 to April 2021, 60 percent or more made this claim, rising to an all-time high of 76 percent in late December 2020 and again in early January 2021. As more Americans got their COVID vaccines, regular mask wearing started to decline, falling to a low of 24 percent in mid-July 2021. The Delta wave in late summer-early fall 2021 produced a bump in masking (about 10 points). As Omicron emerged in December 2021 and January 2022, many Americans put their masks on once again. In their latest poll from mid-March 2022, 26 percent reported always wearing them when they leave the house, 27 percent doing so sometimes, 24 percent occasionally, and 23 percent never. Gallup asked a question with different wording and the over-time pattern looks pretty much the same.

The “never wear a mask” response, while less dramatic, reached a high of 28 percent early in the pandemic when mask guidance was still inconsistent. It then dropped sharply. Since June 2021, in each Axios/Ipsos survey, 10 percent or more have consistently said they never wear a mask when leaving their homes.

Where do we go from here? Only 8 percent in the latest Axios/Ipsos poll say the country should increase mask mandates or vaccination requirements. In a new Wall Street Journal poll, two-thirds chose the response “COVID may not ever fully go away, but can be managed and we should find ways to get on with life without major restrictions,” while 19 percent said it was a public health emergency and should be addressed with restrictions. Thirteen percent said it was never a threat and we should just move on. The data from the polls are consistent: most Americans are over masks now, ready to return to normal, and aware of the possibility that they might be needed again.

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