Throughout the pandemic, masks have ranked among the most contentious public health measures in the United States, symbolizing a bitter partisan divide over the role of government and individual liberties.
Now, with a new variant of the coronavirus rapidly spreading across the globe, masks are again the focus of conflicting views, and fears, about the course of pandemic and the restrictions required to manage it.
A majority of U.S. adults are concerned about the delta coronavirus variant but have not significantly changed their behavior because of it, according to the Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index.
As the country’s vaccination campaign slows and doses go unused, it has suddenly become clear that one of the biggest barriers to mass immunity will be persuading skeptical young adults of all backgrounds to get shots. Federal officials expressed alarm in recent days about low vaccination rates among Americans in their late teens and 20s, and have blamed them for the country’s all-but-certain failure to reach President Biden’s goal of giving 70 percent of adults at least an initial dose by July 4.
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