Despite lockdowns in China as COVID spreads there, surges in Europe, and warnings from health officials that the pandemic is far from over, Americans say they’re less concerned about it today than any point since July 2021, according to a new Numerator study.
Just 33% of people in the U.S. say they’re still highly concerned about COVID-19, compared to 42% in February and 50% in January. And the two most recent variants—Delta and Omicron—have largely been forgotten, with just 15% of people saying they’re worried about Delta and 12% concerned about Omicron.
The declining concerns come as officials say the U.S. is likely to see an “uptick” in cases soon, due to the BA.2 subvariant of Omicron. That mutation of the virus now accounts for roughly 30% of infections in the U.S. (BA.2 is about 50% more transmissible than the original strain of Omicron, but it doesn’t cause more severe illness or evade immunity from vaccinations or earlier infection, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday.)
With reduced public concern about COVID, mask wearing is on the wane as well. Numerator found less than half of consumers (48%) wear masks in public at this point. And only 16% of unvaccinated individuals are still wearing a mask.
A growing number of consumers are gaining longer-term optimism. Nearly three-quarters of the people Numerator spoke with said they expect normalcy to return by the end of 2022. That’s up from two-thirds in January.
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