Unmasked don’t wear, don’t care
People who reject Covid rules aren’t bothered by spread, say researchers
Researchers have looked more deeply at why some Kiwis refuse to get Covid-19 tests, wear masks or stay home when sick — and their insights could help officials design smarter strategies.
In a study released online ahead of peer review, Manaaki Whenualandcare Research scientists found that people unwilling to follow basic measures either disagreed with them or simply didn’t care about stopping the virus.
To get a snapshot of different views, researchers surveyed about 1000 people in Auckland last September, while the city was still in level 2 as a result of the August cluster.
“We were concerned that if New Zealand wanted to maintain an elimination strategy for Covid-19 it meant that New Zealanders needed to change their normal habits,” lead author Dr Geoff Kaine said.
“Given the reticence of a portion of populations in other countries experiencing large Covid-19 surges to making these behavioural changes, it was important to understand how New Zealanders would respond to Government public health measures.”
Importantly,
people’s
willingness to make these changes wasn’t just about their own attitudes — but how strongly they felt motivated.
The team found more than two thirds of respondents “enthusiastically” or “moderately” accepted the science underpinning elimination.
But about 15 per cent weren’t sure what to believe, and another 10 per cent thought Covid-19 was a hoax, had been exaggerated, or was no worse than the seasonal flu.
“We were surprised just how strongly motivated most people were to eliminate Covid-19 from New Zealand, and to change their behaviour to achieve that,” Kaine said.
“At the same time, the proportion of people thinking that fears about
Covid-19 were exaggerated was also surprising.”
The researchers analysed views across three areas — wearing masks, staying home when sick, and getting tests — and, in each, broke down responses into separate groupings.
Overall, the main finding was that willingness to take steps depended on how much people cared about preventing spread, as well as their views on those measures.
“This means people may fail to wear face masks, self-isolate, or get tested for two quite different reasons.”
For those against wearing masks, for instance, “you need to persuade them that it is a good thing to do, or force them to do it, if only in contexts where it matters most, such as wearing face masks on public transport”.
The second reason people might not wear face masks “is because they just don’t care much about stopping the spread of Covid-19”, he said.
“They may think it is important, but they don’t see Covid-19 as being particularly important to them personally. So they don’t really pay much attention.”
Otago University epidemiologist Professor Nick Wilson, who wasn’t involved in the research, said it was possible those who thought the risks were exaggerated might have been misinformed through social media.
It was also possible there was a lack of understanding of “long Covid”, or the effects that last for weeks or months after the initial illness, “and so young people who can reasonably not worry about dying from Covid19 are not fully appreciating these other risks”.
Wilson felt that, while it was good to see most Kiwis wearing masks on public transport, the Government could have done more to promote uptake, such as requiring them in public places during lockdown.
Kaine and colleagues were now analysing data collected from similar surveys carried out away from Auckland, along with other surveys focused on the NZ Covid Tracer app and vaccinations.