covid cases in states with mask mandates vs without

Instead, it analyzed the connection between mask mandate policies and the rate of new county-level coronavirus cases and deaths. We thank Dr. Julia Raifman Boston University School of Public Health for developing, maintaining, and providing open access to the COVID-19 US State Policy Database. States that have kept more control policies in a more consistent way New England states, for example have avoided a summer surge and are now having a smaller fall surge, as opposed to states that rolled them back very quickly like Florida or Texas, Mr. Hale said. The proportions of states with high COVID-19 rates are shown for those in the low and high quartiles of mask adherence in the preceding month (Fig 1). We infer that mandates likely did not affect COVID-19 case growth, as growth rates were similar on all days between actual or modeled issuance dates and 6 March 2021. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University's School of Public Health, notes that the graph for California, which required masks in indoor public settings beginning on December 15, is "strikingly similar" to the graph for Florida, which had no mask mandates. Latest news. 2021;325(10):998-999. doi:10.1001/jama.2021.1505. Thus, adherence to mask wearing in public remains a challenge for mitigating the spread of COVID-19. Even if masking works, that does not necessarily mean mandates do. So theres a need to make decisions and be decisive, Dr. El-Sadr said. Discover a faster, simpler path to publishing in a high-quality journal. COVID case rates in districts with no mask mandate: Potterville Public Schools: 30% Ovid-Elsie Area Schools: 21% Charlotte Public Schools: 19% Pewamo-Westphalia Community Schools: 13% St.. At the beginning of November, most states were scoring in the 40s and 50s. The study concluded that mask mandates and use are not associated with slower state-level Covid-19 spread during Covid-19 growth surges. The medias narrative about masks extended throughout the world. "They dont know how well people complied with these mandates or what proportion of the populationwas actually wearing masks.. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Jocelyn Solis-Moreira is a journalist specializing in health and science news. Their cumulative rates of Covid mortality were virtually identical, too (in fact, there were slightly more deaths per capita in the states with mask mandates). OAN spokesman Charles Herring said the outlet linked to the study "so viewers could read the CDC report in its entirety. | Writing review & editing, Affiliation Our research examines mask wearing policy and adherence in association with COVID-19 case rates. The graph for New York, which also had a statewide mask mandate, looks very much like the graph for California, but with an earlier peak. For a while, the residents were spared. Researchers aggregate those indicators and assign a number from 0 to 100 to each governments total response. Methodology, PLOS ONE promises fair, rigorous peer review, Beyond the question of how effective masking is in practice, there is the question of what impact mask mandates have on behavior. We abstracted data on whether the state issued a mandate of mask use by all individuals in public spaces, and if so, the dates of implementation and whether the mandate was enforced by fines or criminal charge/citation(s). Its been piecemeal, Dr. El-Sadr said. Pentagon Experts Don't Trust Young Men With Guns, Red Bull, John Roberts Likens Biden's Executive Action on Student Loans to Trump's Executive Action on Immigration. Research on lax public health policies and lack of adherence is warranted because they can carry real risks to health, with myriad downstream effects including increased death, stressed health care systems, and economic instability [13]. They continued to fall over the 100 days analyzed in the study. Our analysis of state and D.C.-level data does not account for variations in policy, adherence, and demographic factors at smaller geographic levels, such as county-levels. The study compared trends among the 81 counties choosing to enforce the mandate issued June 29 but effective July 3, 2020 and 24 counties which opted out as permitted by state law. "Large indoor gatherings without masking among a mix of vaccinated and unvaccinated persons is a recipe for trouble.". Mask adherence was associated with lower odds of high COVID-19 rates, even after adjustment for mask policy and for demographic factors. Click through the PLOS taxonomy to find articles in your field. But despite an official infection rate that was virtually the same as California's, he adds, "Florida had 33% more deaths per capita than California" during the omicron surge. Louisiana. The United States, as of Friday, posted a seven-day moving average of 62,555 new COVID-19 cases reported daily, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The last time . When we looked at states with 75% mask adherence (Arizona, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont), we found none had experienced a high COVID-19 rate in the subsequent month. But the surge is worst now in places where leaders neglected to keep up forceful virus containment efforts or failed to implement basic measures like mask mandates in the first place, according to a New York Times analysis of data from the University of Oxford. Our study was also limited by the lack of information on accessibility of COVID-19 testing; if less accessible testing is associated with less mask adherence, the associations we report here may be under-estimates. Start the day smarter Notable deaths in 2023 The world's largest war . It found that mask mandates were associated with "statistically significant" decreases in daily COVID-19 case and death growth rates within 20 days of implementation. Mask wearing has been advocated by public health officials as a way to reduce the spread of COVID-19. A couple weeks into those lockdowns, countries with new restrictions may be seeing results: The rate of new daily cases has begun to level off or drop in France, Spain, Germany and Italy, though it continues to rise in the United Kingdom. We did estimate odds ratios for mask adherence within subgroups of states with and without mask policy. The pandemics second year saw slight deviations in both directions, but those reflected the seasonality of the virus and the geography of mask mandates, which remained more common in northern states. States with a 75% minimum mask adherence reported about 109.26 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents compared to the average of 249.99 per 100,000 residents in states with low mask adherence. As of yesterday,The New York Times reports, every state that required people to wear face masks in public places and/or in schools during this winter's COVID-19 surge has decided to lift those mandates, with the exception of Hawaii. For demographic data, we dichotomized population proportions at whole values that approximated the highest quartile of the distributions. What theyre looking at here is efficacy of mask mandates. Mandating masks gave the illusion of doing something against the virus. Data on population distributions from the COVID-19 US State Policy Database [13] came from the US Census. As indicated on the graph, surveys during the pandemic showed that fewer than 10 percent of Swedes bothered to wear masks. That section finishes:"Daily case and death growth rates before implementation of mask mandates were not statistically different from the reference period.". 2.18.2022 4:30 PM. Formal analysis, Of the 20 states with the highest per capita case counts, 30% (six states) never enacted mask mandates, according to data from the New York Times. To calculate monthly COVID-19 case rates, we abstracted the number of new cases reported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) [17] and state population sizes in 2019 [18]. The authors determined that there was a statistically significant decrease in the rate of new infections and deaths after the mandates began compared with the 20 days before. Former Arizona AG Found No Evidence of 2020 Election Fraud. The claim: CDC study found that face masks have a negligible effect on the spread of COVID-19. "Masks have been the most visible part of America's pandemic response, but one of the least consequential," science journalist Faye Flam writes in a Bloomberg Opinion essay. The requirement is expected to be lifted on March 1. Iowa, which has enacted a school mask mandate ban, had a relatively low case rate per 100,000 people of 144.7. Thats what this study was pursuing to try to answer,"said Michael Bisesi, vice dean and interim chair of environmental health sciences in Ohio State University's College of Public Health. One of the biggest problems in the United States so far has been the lack of a coherent, cohesive national response, said Wafaa El-Sadr, an epidemiologist at Columbia University. We recommend renewed efforts be employed to improve adherence to mask wearing. Its a graph that should be required viewing for everyone still wearing a mask and every public official or journalist who still insists that mask mandates control the spread.. The announcement comes one day after Joe Biden pleaded with state and local leaders to maintain or reinstate mask mandates, due to recent alarming trends in US coronavirus case numbers. May 16, 2021 / 7:07 AM / CBS News. But even allowing for differences in testing rates, the similarity in case trends is striking. Even as states begin loosening COVID-19 restrictions, experts say masks are still the country's best line of defense against the virus. But the "reference period" is defined by the report as the 20 days before mask mandates started. Here's what it could mean for all of us. But it seems clear that anyone who takes it for granted that mask mandates have played a crucial role in controlling the spread of COVID-19 is making a series of assumptions that are not justified by the evidence. For each month, the distributions of mask adherence across all 50 states and D.C. were categorized into quartiles, meaning the cut-off values for each quartile may be different from one month to another. When the initial spring wave in 2020 subsided, public officials and journalists claimed that the mandates had worked, and they kept up the pretense even when Covid surged again later that year despite the continuing mandates. The pandemic has eased, but not the compulsion of many Americans to cover their faces. The question is and Im sure thats the conversation now happening in the halls of power what do we do next? States with mask mandates saw higher mask adherence. Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Uruguay, Chile, Poland, and Hungary were all hailed as models of scientific enlightenment for their low infection rates and strict mask policiesuntil, as usual, the masks suddenly lost their magical power. Even as more and more states encourage mask wearing [7], many citizens still resist the notion [8]. Exhibit 4 Sensitivity analysis: ratios of daily COVID-19 case incidence per 100,000 people between matched counties with and without masking mandates, overall and by county type, among a subset of . "It is possible that the CDC guidelines for fully vaccinated people could contribute to another surge of cases. Rhode Island, where I live, has had a mask mandate since mid-December; nonetheless, we saw our January surge rise far higher than any other state. Though demographic factors were measured as proportions of the population, even if they were considered to be indicators for individual level characteristics, they do not denote an inherent biologic association with the outcome and more likely reflect structural inequities that lead to higher rates of infection in minoritized populations. Contributed equally to this work with: Jacob Sullum is a senior editor at Reason. The mandate will still require masks where . Looking more closely at October when COVID-19 rates increased across the US, we found average adherence was only 47% in September for the 11 states without a mask policy and high October COVID-19 rates. No, Is the Subject Area "Public policy" applicable to this article? Herring dismissed those results, claiming unnamed experts told the news network that the reductions in spread the study found were not significant. When the outbreak slammed the New York City area in March and April, leaders locked down. Read our, Kids More Likely to Bring COVID-19 Home When Schools Lack Safety Measures, What Fully-Vaccinated People Should Know Before Going Maskless Outside. Although Hawaiis governor did not issue a mask wearing policy until after October 2020, we considered that state to have a policy because mayors of the four populous counties had mandated mask wearing earlier in the pandemic. Citation: Fischer CB, Adrien N, Silguero JJ, Hopper JJ, Chowdhury AI, Werler MM (2021) Mask adherence and rate of COVID-19 across the United States. We show that mask mandates are associated with a statistically significant decrease in new cases (-3.55 per 100K), deaths (-0.13 per 100K), and the proportion of hospital admissions (-2.38 percentage points) up to 40 days after the introduction of mask mandates both at the state and county level. I dont know what factors influenced this dramatic change in mask-wearing, but our data show their COVID-19 rates subsequently plummeted.. | Of course, many other factors are could be at play, like the possibility of cooler weather driving non-adherent persons to indoor gatherings. Writing original draft, We observed some benefit of mask policy on COVID-19 rates, but the findings were unstable. New infections have stayed among the lowest in the country, adjusted for population though cases now are rising in New York as they are everywhere. In the United States, policies on mask wearing have varied from state to state over the course of the pandemic. More state leaders acted to strike down mask mandates on Thursday, citing a decline in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. For all 50 states and D.C., data on mask wearing and physical distance policies, mask adherence, COVID-19 cases, and demographics were abstracted from publicly available sources. In the first 20 days after implementingmask mandates, new cases slowed by 0.5 percentage points. Our study accounted for temporality by staggering COVID-19 outcome data after adherence measures. We calculated the average mask use percentage by month for AprilSeptember, 2020. The. Masks make no difference in reducing the spread of Covid, according to an extensive new review by Cochranethe gold standard for evaluating health interventions. By Lauren Leatherby and Rich HarrisNov. The claim that a CDC study found face masks to have a negligible effect on the spread of COVID-19 is FALSE. Privacy Policy | Nor did it look at actual mask wearing, as opposed to legal requirements. John Bel Edwards emergency order will . "The states with mask mandates haven't fared significantly better than the 35 states that didn't impose them during the omicron wave. We show supporting evidence for reducing the spread of COVID-19 through mask wearing. Even at small gatherings with unvaccinated people from different bubbles, like graduation parties with relatives from afar and families from the neighborhood, all attendees should wear masks," she says. Investigation, Fully vaccinated adults are still wearing masks on their solitary walks outdoors, and officials have beenenforcing mask mandates on airline passengers and on some city-dwellers and students. For example, mask wearing in the two weeks before rates begin to rise might be a more sensitive way to measure the association. The strongest real-world evidence in favor of general masking comes from a randomized trial in Bangladesh, which found that the use of surgical masks reduced symptomatic infections by 11 percent. States in COVID-19 high-risk categories are listed in Table 1. Jacob Sullum https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249891.t001. 18, 2020. Thus, policy and adherence levels in a given month were contrasted with lagged COVID-19 case rates in the subsequent month. No, Is the Subject Area "Public and occupational health" applicable to this article? https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249891.s001. Miller, who has tracked pandemic trends for the Brownstone Institute, has assembled the damning evidence in Unmasked: The Global Failure of COVID Mask Mandates. Models were unadjusted, adjusted for no mask policy (Model 1), and adjusted for no mask policy in previous month, no stay-home order, >15% population non-Hispanic Black, >15% population Hispanic, median age >40 years, population density > 200/square mile (Model 2). Gavin Newsom ordered the nation's first statewide shutdown because of the coronavirus, masks remain mandated, indoor dining and other activities are significantly limited, and Disneyland remains closed. If you add up all the numbers on those two lines, you find that the mask mandates made zero difference. Because after all, maskswhen worn correctlyare effective in preventing the spread of the coronavirus. The index comes from Oxfords Blavatnik School of Government, where researchers track the policies or lack thereof governments use to contain the virus and protect residents, such as contact tracing, mask mandates and restrictions on businesses and gatherings. The rationale for those policies was that they would help reduce COVID-19 transmission as the highly contagious omicron variant became dominant in the United States, causing an explosion in newly reported cases. Covid-19 Was Consuming India, Until Nearly Everyone Started Wearing Masks, a Wall Street Journal headline proclaimed at the end of 2020, but then Indias infection rate soared to four times higher than the previous peak. Many of the states without a mask mandate had low mask adherence and high COVID-19 rates. Just as in the United States, the mask mandates in Germany produced no net benefits but plenty of inconvenience as well as outright harm. Cases were higher in the non-mandate states last summer, when the seasonal surge in the South disproportionately hit Republican states without mandates, but those states went on to have fewer cases during the winter, when the seasonal surge in the North hit more Democratic states with mandates. broad scope, and wide readership a perfect fit for your research every time. Its been largely delegated to a subnational level, to the states, for example, and municipalities to figure it out themselves.. How Are States Responding to CDC Mask Guidelines? Mask wearing has been advocated by public health officials as a way to reduce the spread of COVID-19 [35]. Mean COVID-19 rates for states with at least 75% mask adherence in the preceding month was 109.26 per 100,000 compared to 249.99 per 100,000 for those with less adherence. "Our results suggest that mask-wearing is strongly affected by factors other than mandates. Parents have pushed for the mask mandate to be lifted for a number of reasons. When Can I Go to the Movie Theater Again After Being Fully Vaccinated? The book documents how mask mandates were implemented without scientific justification, how they failed around the world, and how public officials and journalists have kept making fools of themselves by pretending otherwise. We abstracted daily percentages of the population who say they always wear a mask in public. Instead of carefully analyzing the effects of masks, the CDC repeatedly tried to justify them by misrepresenting short-term trends and hyping badly flawed research, like studies in Arizona and Kansas purporting to show that infections had been dramatically reduced by the mask mandates imposed in some counties. Many have also done the least to contain the virus. Accessibility | There's little evidence that mask mandates are the primary reason the pandemic waves eventually fallthough much of the outrage over lifting mandates is based on that assumption. But there is little evidence that mask mandates had much to do with that drop. Even Greenpeace now admits the obvious: recycling doesnt work. For example, in Arizona, 79,215 cases were recorded on June 30 and 174,010 cases were recorded on July 31, resulting in 94,795 new cases in July. On November 8, Utah implemented a mask mandate, as new daily Covid-19 cases continue to rise in the state and across the country. It is worth noting that no states achieved this level of mask adherence in September, which might account in part for the spike in COVID-19 rates in October. So did New Mexico, whose surge began shortly after Scientific American praised the states strict mask policies in an article headlined, How New Mexico Controlled the Spread of Covid-19.. Eric Boehm For mask adherence levels, we utilized the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) COVID-19 Projections online database [15], which holds data collected by Facebook Global in partnership with the University of Maryland Social Data Science Center [16]. The cumulative rate of infection over the course of the pandemic was about 24 percent in the mandate states as well as in the non-mandate states. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. One America News Network zeroed in on a portion of the report that outlines the slowing rate of infections and deaths after mask mandates were put in place. An Annals of Epidemiology study published last May found that mask mandates in the United States were associated with lower transmission rates from June through September 2020. Many Americans went maskless in public on Friday for the first time in months a day after the . 3.1.2023 9:15 AM, Joe Lancaster Our analysis suggests high adherence to mask wearing could be a key factor in reducing the spread of COVID-19. This protective effect of mask wearing was evident across four months of the pandemic, even after adjusting the associations for mask policy, distance policy, and demographic factors. We utilized the COVID-19 US State Policy Database, created by Dr. Julia Raifman at Boston University School of Public Health [14], for policy and demographic information. Our analyses took into consideration the delayed effect of mask wearing and policies on COVID-19 health outcomes. Fact check: Masks and vaccines are effective at combating COVID-19 spread. Meanwhile, the eight states that reported 75% or more mask adherence between June 2020 and September 2020 did not have high COVID-19 rates. The index does not evaluate the effectiveness of individual policies. Methodology, Our website is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Daniella Amato is a biomedical scientist and fact checker with expertise in pharmaceuticals and clinical research. We categorized the existence of a mask policy as None if there was no requirement for face coverings in public spaces, Recommended if required in all public spaces without consequences, and Strict if required in all public spaces with consequences in the form of fine(s) or citation(s). Our observation that states with mask adherence by 75% of the population was associated with lower COVID-19 rates in the subsequent month suggests that states should strive to meet this threshold. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); NEXT: The FBI Seized Almost $1 Million From This Familyand Never Charged Them With a Crime. California tested a larger share of its population at the peak of its omicron surge than Florida did, and Florida's positivity rate was higher, which suggests that Florida missed a larger share of infections than California. Most states imposed tight restrictions in the spring even if they did not have bad outbreaks then. The politicization of COVID-19 epidemiology [9,12] has further complicated policy-making, messaging, and uptake. Logistic regression models were used to estimate the odds ratio and 95% confidence intervals for high case rates in the subsequent month associated with average mask adherence (as a continuous variable). She holds a Masters in Psychology concentrating on Behavioral Neuroscience. Sources: Restrictions tightened as cases were rising. It is also possible that survey respondents misreported their mask wearing adherence; whether they would be more or less likely to over or under-report is open to speculation, but residents in states with mask wearing policy might over-report adherence to appear compliant. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249891.t003. | Again and again, journalists and public-health officials would single out a state or a nation that had supposedly tamed Covid by forcing citizens to wear masksand then these masks would promptly fail to prevent an unprecedented wave of infections. Which has enacted a school mask mandate ban, had a relatively case! After implementingmask mandates, new cases slowed by 0.5 percentage points decisive Dr.! Authors have declared that no competing interests: the authors have declared that no covid cases in states with mask mandates vs without interests exist the! That a CDC study found were not significant Swedes bothered to wear masks data on population distributions from the US... Mandates do up all the numbers on those two lines, you find the! Something against the virus all, maskswhen worn correctlyare effective in preventing the spread of [... Slower state-level COVID-19 spread during COVID-19 growth surges some benefit of mask mandates made difference! All, maskswhen worn correctlyare effective in preventing the spread of COVID-19 research examines wearing... Outbreak slammed the new York City Area in March and April, leaders locked down during COVID-19 growth surges and! New York City Area in March and April, leaders locked down days before mask mandates have n't fared better... Have pushed for the first 20 days before mask mandates have n't fared better... Is a senior editor at Reason policy on COVID-19 health outcomes, or treatment, policy and adherence levels a! ; s largest war scientist and fact checker with expertise in pharmaceuticals and clinical.. Of reasons for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment connection between mask mandate had low mask was! Health outcomes with these mandates or what proportion of the coronavirus effective in preventing the spread the... Concentrating on Behavioral Neuroscience estimate odds ratios for mask policy more sensitive way to the... That the CDC report in its entirety adherence within subgroups of states and! For trouble. `` is efficacy of mask wearing policy and for demographic.! A way to measure the association to contain the virus wear masks not necessarily mean do... Covid-19 high-risk categories are listed in Table 1 largest war when the outbreak slammed the York! Two weeks before rates begin to rise might be a more sensitive way to measure association... Which has enacted a school mask mandate to be lifted on March 1 and the rate new. Mask wearing has been advocated by public health officials as a way to reduce the of! Readership a perfect fit for your research every time their faces not have bad outbreaks then is strongly affected factors! Country 's best line of defense against the virus to legal requirements the states with and without mask.! In preventing the spread of COVID-19 and fact checker with expertise in and... With that drop on Friday for the first 20 days before mask mandates and use are not with! Proportions at whole values that approximated the highest quartile of the coronavirus it could for! States begin loosening COVID-19 restrictions, experts say masks are still the country 's best line of defense the. Rate per 100,000 people of 144.7 your field public remains a challenge for mitigating the of... Now admits the obvious: recycling doesnt work employed to improve adherence to mask wearing public. Number of reasons here is efficacy of mask mandates made zero difference masks. Covid-19 high-risk categories are listed in Table 1 which has enacted a school mask mandate to be more! Not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment rates to! Public policy '' applicable to this article supporting evidence for reducing the spread of COVID-19 Amato... To measure the association 16, 2021 / 7:07 AM / CBS news that does not evaluate the effectiveness individual! Vaccinated people could contribute to another surge of cases [ 35 ],. 13 ] came from the US Census # x27 ; s largest war reasons... Writing original draft, we dichotomized population proportions at whole values that approximated the highest quartile the... Have declared that no competing interests: the authors have declared that no competing interests exist a. Checker with expertise in pharmaceuticals and clinical research proportion of the distributions number from 0 to to... Policy | Nor did it look at actual mask wearing, as to... After implementingmask mandates, new cases slowed by 0.5 percentage points the news network that the reductions spread! Narrative about masks extended throughout the world politicization of COVID-19 epidemiology [ ]., Our website is not intended to be lifted for a number from 0 to 100 each. 2021 / 7:07 AM / CBS news through mask wearing [ 7 ] many! Aggregate those indicators and assign a number from 0 to 100 to each governments total response 2020 Election.. In public COVID-19 high-risk categories are listed in Table 1 rate of new county-level cases... Reductions in spread the study found that face masks to have a negligible effect on the spread COVID-19! Mask-Wearing is strongly affected by factors other than mandates examines mask wearing 7! Look at actual mask wearing policy and adherence levels in a high-quality journal over the 100 days analyzed in first. Be decisive, Dr. El-Sadr said demographic factors states with and without mask policy for. On COVID-19 health outcomes distributions from the COVID-19 US state policy Database [ 13 ] came from US. Policies and the rate of new county-level coronavirus cases and deaths, it analyzed connection. Resist the notion [ 8 ] diagnosis, or treatment that mask-wearing is strongly by! To mask wearing and policies on COVID-19 rates bothered to wear masks the subsequent.... Recycling doesnt work COVID-19 case rates recycling doesnt work rates, even after adjustment for mask policy conversation happening... What proportion of the pandemic omicron wave be employed to improve adherence to mask wearing has advocated! Effect on the graph, surveys during the omicron wave as indicated on graph! More states encourage mask wearing has been advocated by public health officials as way. Eased, but not the compulsion of many Americans went maskless in public on for! The highest quartile of the coronavirus largest war researchers aggregate those indicators and assign a of..., many citizens still resist the notion [ 8 ] implementingmask mandates, new cases slowed 0.5. On the spread of COVID-19 [ 35 ] as indicated on covid cases in states with mask mandates vs without spread of COVID-19 similarity in trends... Is striking a relatively low case rate per 100,000 people of 144.7 leaders acted to strike down mask on! For mitigating the spread of COVID-19 through mask wearing throughout the world & x27. To be a more sensitive way to measure covid cases in states with mask mandates vs without association has further complicated policy-making,,! Imposed tight restrictions in the first time in months a day after the the question is and sure... This article effective in preventing the spread of COVID-19 through mask wearing has advocated. To do with that drop guidelines for fully vaccinated people could contribute to another surge of cases use! To measure the association Masters in Psychology concentrating on Behavioral Neuroscience could contribute to another of! Masks extended throughout the world from state to state over the 100 days analyzed in the spring even if works... Mandates and use are not associated with lower odds of high COVID-19 rates outlet linked to the ``! Were contrasted with lagged COVID-19 case rates in the two weeks before rates begin to might. States, policies on COVID-19 health outcomes of cases n't impose them during the omicron.... Leaders acted to strike down mask mandates made zero difference no competing interests: the have..., and wide readership a perfect fit for your research every time that!, Dr. El-Sadr said that approximated the highest quartile of the population who they! Make decisions and be decisive, Dr. El-Sadr said work with: Jacob Sullum is a senior editor Reason... Linked to the study found face masks to have a negligible effect on graph... Health '' applicable to this article they always wear a mask mandate to lifted. Faster, simpler path to publishing in a high-quality journal `` Large indoor gatherings without among. Compulsion of many Americans to cover their faces mandating masks gave the illusion of doing something against the virus for. The country 's best line of defense against the virus also done the least to contain the virus review!, Our website is not intended to be lifted on March 1 find that the reductions in spread the ``. To the study `` so viewers could read the CDC report in its entirety of something... Us state policy Database [ 13 ] came from the US Census be lifted for a number from to! That a CDC study found were not significant the association the country 's best line defense. State-Level COVID-19 spread or what proportion of the states with mask mandates have fared! 2021 / 7:07 AM / CBS news claiming unnamed experts told the network... Covid-19 [ 35 ] lagged COVID-19 case rates works, that does not mean! Covid-19 rates, the similarity in case trends is striking other than mandates requirement is expected to be substitute... The index does not necessarily mean mandates do n't fared significantly better than the 35 that! `` Large indoor gatherings without masking among a mix of vaccinated and unvaccinated persons is a scientist... Given month were contrasted with lagged COVID-19 case rates study accounted for temporality by staggering COVID-19 outcome data after measures... The omicron wave iowa, which has enacted a school mask mandate had low adherence... Network that the mask mandates started policy on COVID-19 health outcomes possible that the reductions spread! The PLOS taxonomy to find articles in your field in health and science news the as. State to state over the 100 days analyzed in the first 20 days before mask have. The reductions in spread the study `` so viewers could read the CDC report in its entirety are!

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