LOUDONVILLE, N.Y. — With masks no longer required in most public indoor spaces in New York State, a new Siena College poll is giving some indication about how New Yorkers feel about the mandates that still remain.
Siena College released the new poll on mask mandates on Tuesday. According to the poll, a majority of New Yorkers (58%) believe the state should wait for the early March COVID-19 data before lifting the mask mandate in schools. Meanwhile, 30% of New Yorkers say the school mask mandate should have ended already, while 10% want to see the mandate end after February break.
According to the poll, 45% of New Yorkers say the mask mandate should still be in place for indoor public places, while 31% say it should have ended earlier. Twenty percent of New Yorkers say the mandate ended at the right time.
“Waiting to see data from early March before deciding to lift the school mask mandate – as opposed to lifting that mandate as schools reconvene next week or wishing it had been lifted previously – is how the majority of New Yorkers would like to proceed,” said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg. “The majority of virtually every demographic group agrees, though not Republicans and conservatives, who wish the mandate had ended already.
Greenberg added, “While nearly two-thirds of voters without children at home support waiting for March data to decide on the school mask mandate, state and school officials face a ‘lose/lose’ proposition with their constituents most closely affected by this decision – regardless of the decision – since voters with children under 18 in their household are closely divided between waiting for data to decide and masks should have been off already."