Exclusive: People who wore masks were less likely to get sick
07 June 2021
Data: Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index polling data since March 2020; Chart: Will Chase/Axios
Turns out that wearing a mask and social distancing really weren't a waste of time.
Driving the news: Exclusive polling data from our Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index, which started in March 2020, shows that the respondents who reported never wearing masks were twice as likely to test positive for COVID as those who said they wore masks all the time.
By the numbers: Just 11% of people who reported always wearing masks outside the home tested positive for COVID — compared to 23% of those who said they never wore masks.
- That's even though people who wore masks all the time got tested more regularly than those who didn't.
- 30% of people who wore masks at all times reported getting tested for COVID, compared to 23% who wore masks sometimes, 20% of those who wore them occasionally but not often and 12% of those who never wore them.
Between the lines: When a group of people is getting tested less often than others, but has a higher positive rate, there's a good chance that there are other sick people who are being missed.
The pattern was similar for social distancing. Just 10% of people who said they kept a six-foot distance from other people at all times tested positive for COVID, compared to 26% of people who said they never did.
- 12% of people who said they sometimes kept a six-foot distance tested positive, as did 20% of those who said they social distanced occasionally but not often.
- There was less variation in testing rates in this group: 26% of people who always social distanced got tested for COVID, compared to 27% of people who did so sometimes, 28% of those who did so occasionally but not often, and 23% of those who never did.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.