UW Study Finds 89% Of King County Masked Up In Public
SEATTLE — A new study released this week found overwhelming compliance with Washington's mask mandate over the last four months in King County. Researchers with the University of Washington, Public Health - Seattle & King County and the state Department of Health found 89 percent of people in King County wore face coverings over their mouth and nose in public on average.
Research teams observed thousands of people in public between November and February to help identify venues where mask use was less common and help officials find areas of improvement to craft better public health messaging.
"There are lots of reasons why people might not feel comfortable or might not want to wear a mask," said Marissa Baker, an assistant professor who participated in the study. "The goal is to determine where pockets of lower compliance are, and then to use that information to develop appropriate risk communication for those locations."
The study included nine student volunteers from the UW School of Public Health to observe 40 venues in seven regions across King County. The areas chosen included parks, malls, Sea-Tac Airport, and grocery, convenience and hardware stores. Observers spent about 30 minutes in each place and took notes on the people around them, marking down mask use and estimates on age and gender.
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