In September 2020, we asked Citizen Scientists, “Which type of mask do you usually wear outside the home?” In March 2022, we asked Citizen Scientists the same question again. Let’s see the changes!
*Some participants indicated wearing more than one type of mask. In those cases, each mask they selected was counted.
By raw percentages, the biggest changes were a shift from cotton masks (64% to 22%) and a shift to “Fitted N95, no valve” masks (5% to 38%). This may be due to the shortage of N95 masks in September 2020 (NPR) that had ended as early as December 2021 (Fast Company).
One of the biggest relative changes was an increase in participants who don’t wear a mask outside the home (about an eight-fold increase from 0.6% to 4.8%).
With the lifting of the federal public transit mask mandate on April 18, 2022, there could be further changes to our Citizen Scientists’ mask-wearing behaviors. Stay tuned for updates!
