“Life after COVID: Will people still wear masks after the pandemic?”

Shana Kushner Gadarian, associate professor of political science in the Maxwell School, was interviewed by CBS affiliate 10 Tampa Bay for the story “Life after COVID: Will people still wear masks after the pandemic?” Gadarian, who has researched political public opinion during the pandemic, says that political identity has acted as a partisan factor in determining whether people will wear a mask. While in many other cultures it is standard for people to mask when sick, Gadarian says American individualism makes this challenging in the U.S. “To make people believe they are the experts in their own health decisions and they should do what helps them, rather than the community is a big hurdle to overcome,” Gadarian says.