NEW YORK (StudyFinds.org) – The coronavirus pandemic may finally be nearing its end, but a new study finds many parents still aren’t taking any chances. Seven in 10 parents are still urging their kids to wear masks at school, even while some states are relaxing their COVID-19 policies.
A recent OnePoll survey asked 2,000 adults (1,000 parents and 1,000 non-parents) about their views on mask mandates. Results show that 73% of parents feel schools should enforce mask usage to keep children and teachers safe as long as the pandemic continues.
Notably, 37% of non-parents also don’t think it’s safe enough to end mask mandates in schools versus 28% of parents who feel that way. This comes after several states, such as New York, California and Oregon, ended indoor mask policies in schools and most public locations.
According to the survey, 66% of parents believe lawmakers shouldn’t decide whether to keep or remove mask mandates altogether. Additionally, many respondents expressed that health officials haven’t always been clear when issuing pandemic guidelines over the last two years.
Six in 10 respondents agree that the COVID guidelines coming from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) can sometimes be too confusing to understand (62%).
While 65% of all survey respondents say they couldn’t wait for the day when they didn’t have to wear masks anymore, 47% plan to continue using them even after the pandemic officially ends.