Christina Bakos didn鈥檛 want her voice on the radio because she thinks she sounds like a frog.
She's pretty sure she has COVID. Her son, who works at a preschool, tested positive. The school is closed this week because so many kids are infected.
Bakos lives in Cambridge. She鈥檚 vaccinated, but she鈥檚 at high risk for disease. In recent days, she's had trouble breathing.
Throughout the pandemic, she's always worn a mask when she goes out. For her, asking others to do the same feels like a no-brainer.
鈥淵ou can鈥檛 go into a store without a shirt and shoes on,鈥� she said. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 the big deal about a mask?鈥�
鈥淚t feels like a silly thing not to do for someone else,鈥� she added.
Many share this sentiment: 58% of Vermonters support a statewide mask mandate, according to a .
In general, most people say they support policies that would limit the spread of infection: More than half of respondents said the governor reinstating emergency powers would be a 鈥渞easonable response鈥� right now.
Some 60% said public schools should require COVID vaccines. And respondents were evenly split on whether proof of vaccination should be required to enter places like restaurants and stores.
Public health experts have long championed these measures.
鈥淚n a pandemic that spreads through the air, masks are as important as hand washing in a pandemic with germs that spread on our hands,鈥� said Julia Raifman, who researches pandemic policy responses at Boston University and runs the . 鈥淭hat's just the nature of the virus.鈥�
Raifman doesn鈥檛 think of mask mandates or vaccine requirements as just preventing people from getting infected.
鈥淩educing COVID cases reduces a lot more than just cases,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t reduces hospitalizations, it reduces school closures, it reduces business closures. It reduces people who lose their family members, kids who lose their parents.鈥�
At a policy level, measures like have a of reducing cases, both and more recently.
Gov. Phil Scott has dismissed any notion of implementing a statewide mask mandate or vaccination requirements in recent months. And while over a dozen towns require masks indoors, .
Outside Vermont though, at least six states have statewide mask mandates in place this winter.
鈥淲e saw that masking increased immediately upon implementation of mandates. And those states have higher levels of masking than states without mandates in place,鈥� said Anne Sosin, a public health researcher at Dartmouth College.
Sosin says Hawaii is a good comparison to Vermont for this. They have a statewide mask mandate and % of Hawaiians say they always wear a mask when they go out. While in Vermont, %, depending on which survey data you look at.
鈥淲e do have good data showing that mask mandates do lead to higher masking at population level,鈥� Sosin said.
Outside of politics, most Vermonters agree that health care workers should not differentiate between caring for vaccinated and unvaccinated people under any circumstance. Only 31% of poll respondents said health care providers should prioritize vaccinated people 鈥渋f resources become scarce.鈥�
Researchers like Raifman, from Boston University, agree. 鈥淚t's completely contrary to the spirit of public health to divide people into people who are vaccinated or unvaccinated,鈥� she said.
It鈥檚 easy to blame people for not getting vaccinated, whether because of lack of access, misinformation, or ideology. But that doesn鈥檛 prompt behavior change, she said.
鈥淚t takes collective action, it takes support, to get vaccinated, to wear masks, to anchor in facts on why we need to do these things,鈥� Raifman said. 鈥淲hen we're divided against each other, then the virus wins. And that's what's happening.鈥�
Lexi Krupp is a corps member for , a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and regions.
Have questions, comments or tips? or get in touch with reporter Lexi Krupp .
From Jan. 3 to Jan. 9, the VPR-Vermont PBS 2022 Poll asked hundreds of Vermonters about their opinions on politicians, Vermont's response to COVID-19 and more. The second part of the results will be released in early February.
