COVID-19 Outbreak (Update: More than 2.9M cases and 132,313 deaths in US)

nolaswede said

I don’t want to seem judgmental, but curious to
See if there is a correlation between liberals and conservatives regarding wearing masks? More rural areas tend to lean Republican and might feel like this virus is not that big of a deal. And that our country should be reopened by now. Again, not trying to be rude, but wonder if there is any correlation.

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Because our house was on the market, when the schools closed we left Charleston and went up to my parents' place on the NC coast. This county is 90% white and voted 70% for Trump- it's very Republican. It's also quite sparsely populated relative to the regional population centers.

I see masks in Wal-Mart and the grocery store on about half of the people - which actually a bit higher than I would have suspected. I think part of it is that it's an older county by median age, so it means there are people that are concerned about their own health risk.

But I also see many examples of poor social distancing - like boats with six or seven people on them that you know aren't from the same family (a boat full of teens or young adults for example). The local golf course is packed - mostly older groups of men and couples. The course makes each person have his/her own cart - unless you're married, which I suppose is sensible if your primary objective is to keep people more than six feet apart. And the bathrooms are closed.

That said, there's 27 cases in the county - and the pace of new cases is very slow. It's been steady just one or two here and there, and it's understandable that people don't worry too much about it. So beyond people's worldview or political disposition, there's also their local situation that informs their behavior.