Eight states were reported to have at least 75% mask adherence in any month between June and September (AZ, CT, HI, MA, NY, RI, VT, VA); none reported 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. Several cities and large counties, including Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Hillsborough (which includes Tampa), had mask requirements, but Gov. 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). Some reopened quickly and saw cases rise. The claim that a CDC study found face masks to have a negligible effect on the spread of COVID-19 is FALSE. The county in the spotlight right now is Los Angeles County, where cases have spiked over the past few weeks with more than 2,700 new COVID infections per day, which is a 180% increase since Nov. 1. Thank you for supporting our journalism. Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work. The findings were published in the journal PLOS One in April. New Zealand recently lifted all restrictions following 10 days with no new cases. Data curation, That period is used as the benchmark against which researchers compared days 21 through 60 before mask mandates were adoptedand the 100 days after. Discover a faster, simpler path to publishing in a high-quality journal. Herring dismissed those results, claiming unnamed experts told the news network that the reductions in spread the study found were not significant. Only eight states reported that 75% or more people wore masks between June and September, leading to fewer COVID cases: 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. Because high COVID rates were reported by only eight states in May and four states in June, we did not examine mask adherence or policy in the preceding April or May. John Tierney is a contributing editor of City Journal and coauthor of The Power of Bad: How the Negativity Effect Rules Us and How We Can Rule It. ", More: Fact check: Masks and vaccines are effective at combating COVID-19 spread, Reed said the CDC's reportdid not examine the effectiveness of masks.. Here's what it could mean for all of us. Nedghie Adrien, Roles Over a third of states are ending COVID-19 mask mandates. Our analysis suggests high adherence to mask wearing could be a key factor in reducing the spread of COVID-19. For the most recent updates on COVID-19, visit our coronavirus news page. Researchers aggregate those indicators and assign a number from 0 to 100 to each governments total response. 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 researchers found no clear relationship between mask mandates and mask use. Outbreaks are comparatively smaller in states where efforts to contain the virus were stronger over the summer and fall potential good news for leaders taking action now. In fact, it doesn't study mask efficacy at all. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249891.g001. 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. States with stronger policy responses over the long run are seeing comparatively smaller outbreaks. The study also found a statistically significant increase in the rate of COVID-19 infections and deaths starting 40 days after indoor or outdoor dining at restaurants was allowed. Mean COVID-19 rates for states with 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. When the state faced a surge of cases over the summer, the governor closed bars and placed limits on restaurant capacity. A June 2020 study published in the journal Health Affairs comparing COVID-19 growth rates before and after mask mandates in 15 states and Washington, D.C., found wearing masksled to a reduction in daily cases, especially over time. For more information about PLOS Subject Areas, click And in the Germancity of Jena, first in the country to implement public mask wearing last April, masks led to a 75% decrease in new COVID-19 cases in little under three weeks, one December study found. Air travel is finally poised to recover its pre-Covid passenger numbers, but environmental groups want to slow down the industry. | Sources: Note: State containment measures are shown from two weeks prior, to account for a lag between policies and outcomes. 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. Weak recent containment measures and many cases. | Cases dropped in late July, but since then Texas has eased efforts to contain the virus, and cases are rising again. Mast mandates may be back on the table for states where the number of COVID cases are once again causing serious alarm for health officials. The Bangladesh study, in other words, does not demonstrate the effectiveness of the cloth masks that adults tend to pull out of their pockets when they enter businesses, let alone the masks that children as young as 2 are forced to wear in schools and day care centers. Of course, many other factors are could be at play, like the possibility of cooler weather driving non-adherent persons to indoor gatherings. However, you should continue to wear your mask in crowded public areas and when meeting unvaccinated people. Explaining the justification for lifting mask requirements, governors and public health agencies generally have cited the precipitous decline in daily new cases since mid-January. We used state-level data on mask wearing policy for the general public and on proportion of residents who stated they always wear masks in public. In the summer of 2020, Politico praised Rhode Islands wear-your-damn mask policy in an article headlined, How the Smallest State Engineered a Covid Comeback. A survey in the autumn found that 96 percent of Rhode Islanders were wearing masks, the highest rate in the U.S., yet that winter the state went on to suffer one of the nations worst Covid surges. 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. Yes Instead, it links mask mandates to statistically significant decreases in county-level daily COVID-19 case and death growth rates within 20 days of implementation.. Just as in the United States, the mask mandates in Germany produced no net benefits but plenty of inconvenience as well as outright harm. Taiwan recently recorded 200 days without a new coronavirus case after its leaders focused on a speedy response and invested in mass testing and contact tracing. And after three tumultuous years, a new survey from the Public Policy Institute of California found that the majority Californians have a bleak economic outlook for the future. Indeed all 13 states in the low mask adherence group in September had high COVID-19 rates in October. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249891.g002. After reopening early, some Sun Belt states, including Arizona and Texas, imposed restrictions again after case counts climbed. What theyre looking at here is efficacy of mask mandates. The worst outbreaks in the country now are in places where policymakers did the least to prevent transmission, according to the Oxford index. | Sources: Oxford Covid-19 Government Response Tracker, closing bars, restaurants, gyms, theaters and schools, one in 10 North Dakotans have tested positive. Decreases in the rate of new infections and deaths from the virus were statistically significant, the studys authors found. Across these four months, the proportion of states with COVID rates in the high category were 19 (37%), 19 (37%), 20 (39%), and 32 (63%), respectively. Its been piecemeal, Dr. El-Sadr said. For mask adherence, the cut-off values for the low and high quartiles were 31% and 46% in June, 53% and 72% in July, 55% and 71% in August, and 55% and 68% in September. For the period of April 1 through October 31, 2020, less than half of states had issued a mandate for mask wearing in public and nearly a third had not made any recommendation. They looked at data from April to October 2020. May 16, 2021 / 7:07 AM / CBS News. Across the country, indoor mask requirements in blue states are falling like dominoes as COVID cases drop. Costs vs. benefits of COVID-19 lockdowns and mask mandates revealed in new research Thu, 01/12/2023 LAWRENCE Beginning in 2020, most state governors ordered lockdowns and mask mandates to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Writing original draft. But there are still settings where wearing your mask is crucial. Research suggests that mandatory mask-wearing policies correlated with a lower number of COVID-19 infections and deaths. Mask mandates are associated with reductions in COVID-19 case and hospitalization growth rates (6,7), whereas reopening on-premises dining at restaurants, a known risk factor associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection (2), is associated with increased COVID-19 cases and deaths, particularly in the absence of mask mandates (8). According to Werler, Arizonas data was unexpected. States with the lowest levels of mask adherence were most likely to have high COVID-19 rates in the subsequent month, independent of mask policy or demographic factors. "Unfortunately, the virus hasnt gone away and is still easily transmissible. "Its that simple.. Odds ratios indicating protection against high COVID-19 rates remained for all months and policy subgroups, ranging from 0.82 to 0.93 for states with any policy and from 0.60 to 0.95 for states with no policy. Nevertheless, it is possible that average mask adherence in a given month does not capture the most effective time period that influences COVID-19 rates. Its a difficult addiction to overcome, according to the Japanese therapists who specialize in treating itbut a simple remedy might help some maskaholics. Even as more and more states encourage or even mandate mask wearing, many citizens still resist the notion. Many experts acknowledge that the rise and fall of waves is a bit of a mystery.". Conceptualization, After briefly ramping up restrictions closing bars, restaurants, gyms, theaters and schools in March, when most other states did, Gov. The black line on the graph shows the weekly rate of Covid cases in all the states with mask mandates that week, while the orange line shows the rate in all the states without mandates. Jocelyn Solis-Moreira is a journalist specializing in health and science news. We show supporting evidence for reducing the spread of COVID-19 through mask wearing. However, Werler says her team did find substantial amounts of variation that could suggest other factors beyond mandatessuch as political affiliationcould be at play. Most states imposed tight restrictions in the spring even if they did not have bad outbreaks then. Its Legacy Is Disastrous. 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. 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