Money can’t buy everything, but it makes it more likely you’ll protect yourself from Covid-19 infection, a new study from Johns Hopkins University researchers shows.
Money can’t buy everything, but it makes it more likely you’ll protect yourself from Covid-19 infection, a new study from Johns Hopkins University researchers shows. The study found that people with higher incomes were more likely to make larger changes to protect themselves from Covid-19 than people with lower incomes. Overall,88% of respondents reported taking precautionary measures against Covid-19 infection, such as hand washing, masking, and social distancing. Though most respondents did not change their behaviors much over time, higher-income people were most likely to increase their self-protective behaviors. Respondents in the highest-income group—people earning an average of about $230,000 per year—were 32% more likely to increase social distancing and 30% more likely to increase hand washing and mask wearing than people in the lowest-income group, who earned, on average, just under $14,000 per year. The results suggest that behavioral differences are not based on different beliefs or attitudes, but on people’s ability to make the changes necessary to protect themselves. Overall,97% of respondents in the highest- and lowest-income groups believed social distancing is effective. However, only 45% of people in the lowest-income group had increased their social distancing compared with 57% of people in the highest-income group. Employment flexibility was a major factor in whether respondents increased their social distancing. People who could work from home were 24% more likely to socially distance than people who continued to work in person.
