Bloomberg — US Black and Hispanic people, among the groups hardest hit by the pandemic, are more likely than White Americans to see masks and other pandemic precautions as important, even as mandates for airplanes and public spaces disappear.
Those are the findings of a new poll from AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. About 78% of Black people and 62% of Hispanic respondents said it was essential or important to wear masks while in public, indoor spaces, according to the poll. Just 44% of White respondents in the survey of about 1,000 US residents said the same, and Black and Hispanic respondents were also more likely than their White counterparts to say it was critical for people to be tested regularly for Covid.
The shock of the pandemic has been unequal almost from the start, with Black, Hispanic and other minority communities continually impacted in outsized ways. Black and Hispanic New Yorkers died at higher rates than White residents in April 2020. The death rate for Latinos in Los Angeles spiked 48% between 2019 and 2021, and Black Los Angeles residents had the highest death rate of any racial or ethnic group in the city.
Black and Hispanic workers are also overrepresented in front-line jobs, which may contribute to the extra caution. A McKinsey & Co. report released in April 2020 found that 33% of nursing assistants and 39% of hospital orderlies were Black. A report published by the Urban Institute in December 2020 noted that Native, Black and Hispanic or Latinx workers were more likely than White people to hold jobs classified as “essential;” within the same groups, more than half held jobs that had to be completed in person rather than remotely.
Overall, just 12% of US adults feel that their lives are completely the same as they were before the pandemic, the AP-NORC poll showed.
Hispanic respondents, in particular, showed hesitation to resume some aspects of public life: Only 77% said they would resume socializing with friends or neighbors in person, compared with overall figure of 87% and 92% of White respondents. A little more than 60% of Hispanic people said they’d go out to eat at a bar or restaurant, compared with 86% of their White counterparts. The poll, conducted May 12 to May 16, didn’t provide data for Asian or Native American respondents.
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