Boston Globe, November 2020
A new survey examining behavior during the pandemic has found that thestate’s rise in COVID-19 infections unfolded as residents more frequently participated in activities that spread the virus, such as patronizing restaurants and gyms or being indoors with people who were not members of their immediate household.
The findings suggest the state should take more dramatic steps to stop the spread of the virus by temporarily halting indoor dining and closing gyms, because imploring residents to avoid large gatherings won’t be enough to keep them healthy, one of the researchers said Saturday.
“We are in a very dangerous place in Massachusetts, and part of that is almost certainly how we’ve changed our behaviors,” said David Lazer, a Northeastern University professor and researcher with the COVID-19 Consortium for Understanding the Public’s Policy Preferences Across States, which sponsored the survey.
