By Lauren Leatherby and Rich HarrisNov. We examined the impact of state-based mask wearing policy and adherence on COVID-19 case rates during the summer and early fall of 2020 in order to quantify this effect. In contrast, 25% or fewer states with a mask wearing policy had high COVID-19 rates, except in September when over half experienced high rates. Effectiveness of Mask Wearing to Control Community Spread of SARS-CoV-2. Crude and adjusted odds ratios for any mask policy in relation to high COVID-19 rates in the subsequent month were below 1.0; but confidence intervals were wide. 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. Sources: Restrictions tightened as cases were rising. Most states in the low quartile had high COVID-19 rates in the subsequent month. New Zealands prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, called it a validation of the countrys go hard, go early strategy, in which the country reacts rapidly to signs of community spread. In the United States, policies on mask wearing have varied from state to state over the course of the pandemic. 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. Similar reductions in odds of high COVID-19 rates in August and September were observed for July and August mask adherence, respectively. But the study did not take into account other policies or voluntary safeguards that may have differed between jurisdictions with and without mask mandates. At the beginning of November, most states were scoring in the 40s and 50s. But in each state, as Miller shows, infection rates remained lower in the counties that did not mandate masks. 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. The. One state is the lone holdout. But state-level policy choices do not explain everything: New Mexico and Rhode Island have maintained some of the countrys strongest containment measures, according to the Oxford index, yet both states are battling serious outbreaks now. But there are still settings where wearing your mask is crucial. 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. The resurgence was blamed on people disobeying the mandates, never mind the surveys showing widespread compliance. Subscribe to Reason Roundup, a wrap up of the last 24 hours of news, delivered fresh each morning. That second observation requires a caveat, since testing rates affect the number of cases that are recorded. The estimated absolute change in cumulative case rate associated with lifting the mask mandate, remains 28.1 (30.6%) 21 days after lifting the mask mandate. Immediately after these mandates were instituted, these declines were statistically significant.. Louisiana. 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. | The pandemic has eased, but not the compulsion of many Americans to cover their faces. 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). Writing original draft. Maskaholics in the press are calling for permanent masking on trains, planes, and buses. The mandates typically began early in the pandemic in 2020 and remained until at least the summer of 2021, with some extending into 2022. 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.. 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. How Are States Responding to CDC Mask Guidelines? 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. Both mask policy and mask adherence for states and D.C. were cross-tabulated with high case rates in the subsequent month. Just as in the United States, the mask mandates in Germany produced no net benefits but plenty of inconvenience as well as outright harm. By the time the mandates were introduced in New York and other states in the spring of 2020 (at the left side of the graph), infections had already been declining in those states, and the mandates didnt prevent a surge later that year, when cases rose and fell in nearly identical trajectories regardless of states mask policies. Gov. Now, nearly one in 10 North Dakotans have tested positive about a third of those in the past two weeks and one in 1,000 have died of the virus. 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. "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. Some states now have ended their statewide masks mandates, but the president, and others, have urged them to reinstate masks mandates because of the recent upsurge that our nation has seen in COVID-19 cases. 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. 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. According to Werler, Arizona's data was unexpected. A quarterly magazine of urban affairs, published by the Manhattan Institute, edited by Brian C. Anderson. The claim that a CDC study found face masks to have a negligible effect on the spread of COVID-19 is FALSE. Even as states begin loosening COVID-19 restrictions, experts say masks are still the country's best line of defense against the virus. We recommend renewed efforts be employed to improve adherence to mask wearing. Variants of COVID-19 Are Spreading Across the U.S. How to Plan a COVID-Safe Summer Vacation in 2022. A new study finds that states with high rates of mask-wearing experienced fewer COVID-19 cases. Thank you for supporting our journalism. The study used county-level data from March 1 through Dec. 31 of last year, comparing data from before mandates tookeffect to the time period when they were in place. Theyre suffering from mask dependency, as this psychological affliction is termed in Japan, where a long tradition of mask-wearing during flu season has left some individuals afraid at any time to expose their faces in public. Mandating masks gave the illusion of doing something against the virus. Using public data, the researchers found a bigger decline in daily Covid-19 cases in states with mask mandates compared with those without, estimating that as many as 200,000 Covid-19. When Youve Been Fully Vaccinated. "Lifting of mask mandates across the board without consideration of the caveats does open the opportunity for another wave," Werler says. You cansubscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here. Nedghie Adrien, Roles However, you should continue to wear your mask in crowded public areas and when meeting unvaccinated people. Now, Midwestern states have among the worst outbreaks. Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, United States of America, Roles Wearing a mask may still give some people a sense of security, but they could breathe more easily if theyd face the facts. In Germany, by contrast, more than 80 percent did so, but look at the similar trajectories of the daily Covid death toll in both countries from the summer of 2020 through March of this year. "They dont know how well people complied with these mandates or what proportion of the populationwas actually wearing masks.. Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook. 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. The proportions of states and D.C. with high COVID-19 rates were greatest for those with no mask wearing policy for the general public in the preceding month (Fig 2). here. Rhode Island. May 16, 2021 / 7:07 AM / CBS News. 3.1.2023 8:00 AM, 2022 Reason Foundation | The same basic pattern was seen in nearly every state. 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). Jha thinks vaccination rates areanother important factor: While "only 59% of eligible Florida seniors have gotten boosted," he notes, the rate for California is 70 percent. CNBC called the nations early Covid response a master class in science communication, and last fall it was praised for tightening its mask mandate in an Atlantic article, Four Measures That Are Helping Germany Beat Covid. Its stricter mandate early last year banished cloth masks, requiring surgical masks instead, and the states of Berlin and Bavaria went still further, requiring masks of N95 quality. Yes Yes here. The three COVID-19 vaccines authorized by the FDA are also helping slow COVID-19 rates, allowing for the easing of restrictions. Our observed associations should influence policy-makers and contribute to public health messaging by government officials and the media that mask wearing is a key component of COVID-19 mitigation. 2021;325(10):998-999. doi:10.1001/jama.2021.1505. Containment measures are as of Nov. 1. Thus, policy and adherence levels in a given month were contrasted with lagged COVID-19 case rates in the subsequent month. "The states with mask mandates haven't fared significantly better than the 35 states that didn't impose them during the omicron wave. Mask wearing has been advocated by public health officials as a way to reduce the spread of COVID-19 [35]. Vaccinated persons can carry and spread the virus.". We thank Drs. But "few studies assessed compliance to mask wearing policies or controlled for the possible influence of other preventive measures such as hand hygiene and physical distancing.". Mask wearing has been advocated by public health officials as a way to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Further analyses of more granular geographic regions would be a logical next step. As of Aug. 3, Louisiana is under a temporary statewide mask mandate required of all people, including those who are vaccinated, when indoors. 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. Despite an early outbreak, South Korea flattened the curve with aggressive testing and contact tracing, as well as widespread mask wearing. Writing review & editing, Affiliation When cases first peaked in the United States in the spring, there was no clear correlation between containment strategies and case counts, because most states enacted similar lockdown policies at the same time. We all want to be able to be with friends and family this spring and summer, and we all dont want to have [to] go back to the more stringent mitigation measures, so gathering outside and wearing masks is the best way to allow both to happen.. Thus, adherence to mask wearing in public remains a challenge for mitigating the spread of COVID-19. 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. Its a difficult addiction to overcome, according to the Japanese therapists who specialize in treating itbut a simple remedy might help some maskaholics. 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. Over the course of the pandemic, both Iowa and Florida have done better than the national average in measures of Covid mortality as well as overall excess mortality (the number of deaths more than normal from all causes). 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. 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. States with mask mandates saw higher mask adherence. In conclusion, we show that mask wearing adherence, regardless of mask wearing policy, may curb the spread of COVID-19 infections. Yes High school students in Seattle staged a protest demanding that a mask mandate be reinstated, and psychologists now deal with the anxieties of children who dont want their classmates to see their faces. Like the debate about lockdowns, the debate about mask mandates will continue. "Its that simple.. Mask wearing has been advocated by public health officials as a way to reduce the spread of COVID-19. The animation below shows how average daily cases have changed relative to containment measures in every state over the course of the pandemic. 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. 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. Our analysis suggests high adherence to mask wearing could be a key factor in reducing the spread of COVID-19. Yes That section finishes:"Daily case and death growth rates before implementation of mask mandates were not statistically different from the reference period.". Here's what it could mean for all of us. At Humble ISD, 4.59 percent have tested positive for COVID. | 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. Nor did it look at actual mask wearing, as opposed to legal requirements. That's not nothing, but it's a pretty modest effect, and it was achieved with surgical masks worn by adults in conditions that encouraged proper and consistent use. 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