Mask wearing has been advocated by public health officials as a way to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Of the 15 states with no mask policy from April through September, 14 reported high COVID-19 rates in at least one month from May to October. Some reopened quickly and saw cases rise. 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. 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. 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 findings were published in the journal PLOS One in April. 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 . Yes 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.. Masks prevent you from inhaling or exhaling viral droplets that can linger in the air. It also examined the link between allowing on-site restaurant dining and the number of coronavirus cases and deaths. For every 1% increase in average adherence in June, the fully adjusted odds ratios for high COVID-19 in July was 0.95, indicating a protective effect against high COVID-19 rates. Despite an early outbreak, South Korea flattened the curve with aggressive testing and contact tracing, as well as widespread mask wearing. Most states imposed tight restrictions in the spring even if they did not have bad outbreaks then. 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. This association between high mask adherence and reduced COVID-19 rates should influence policy makers and public health officials to focus on ways to improve mask adherence across the population in order to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. If Florida's case numbers understate the true number of infections more than California's do, that could partially explain the difference in COVID-19 deaths per capita. e0249891. Vermont. Larry Hogan called on the State Board of Education to . The data we now have conclusively show that widespread use of masks is a very effective way to reduce the spread of COVID-19, CDC spokeswoman Jasmine Reed wrote in an email to USA TODAY. Nor did it look at actual mask wearing, as opposed to legal requirements. Writing original draft, Clearly you dont want to wait too long because thats the mistake we made last time, when things spun out of control. 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. 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. Once you start thinking about acting, it probably is the time to act.. Across the country, indoor mask requirements in blue states are falling like dominoes as COVID cases drop. The same study found that cloth masks did not have a statistically significant effect. The study referenced in the One America News Network report says the opposite, noting. Study: States With Mask Mandates Saw Fewer Summertime COVID Cases. 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 calculated the average mask use percentage by month for AprilSeptember, 2020. | Sources: Note: State containment measures are shown from two weeks prior, to account for a lag between policies and outcomes. Since the spring, Maine mandated masks and had strict travel restrictions for out-of-state visitors; South Dakota, meanwhile, has never had a mask mandate and welcomed nearly half a million people to the Sturgis motorcycle rally, as well as its state fair, which attracted more than 100,000 visitors. 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. In their pre-Covid planning strategies for a pandemic, neither the Centers for Disease Control nor the World Health Organization had recommended masking the publicfor good reason. Several other states have implemented or tightened. One state is the lone holdout. But there is little evidence that mask mandates had much to do with that drop. No, Is the Subject Area "Public policy" applicable to this article? Since July 27, 2020, individuals had been required to wear a mask or face covering in the state when visiting public indoor spaces and when unable to maintain a 6-foot distance from. We divided the monthly number by 2.2 to obtain the number in a two-week period (43,088). Fourteen of the 15 states with no mask wearing policy for the general public through September reported a high COVID-19 rate. Over the course of the pandemic, the scientific evidence and our understanding of masks have grown. | Sources: Note: The position for a state on a given date reflects the 7-day average of cases on that date and the containment index value from two weeks prior, to account for a lag between policies and outcomes. The mandates typically began early in the pandemic in 2020 and remained until at least the summer of 2021, with some extending into 2022. As indicated on the graph, surveys during the pandemic showed that fewer than 10 percent of Swedes bothered to wear masks. Its Legacy Is Disastrous. 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. Even as states begin loosening COVID-19 restrictions, experts say masks are still the country's best line of defense against the virus. Thus, subsequent comparisons of states with high COVID-19 rates by month focused on July, August, September and October. States with stronger policy responses over the long run are seeing comparatively smaller outbreaks. Note: Cases and hospitalizations are data from Nov. 16. 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. 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. But the researchers found no clear relationship between mask mandates and mask use. Fact check: Masks and vaccines are effective at combating COVID-19 spread. 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. Indeed, associations between mask policy, adherence and other factors may be obscured in states with many high density and low density areas. The same basic pattern was seen in nearly every state. In Maryland , Gov. COVID-19 death rates dropped by 0.7 percentage points in the first 20 days after masks were required. More state leaders acted to strike down mask mandates on Thursday, citing a decline in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. The surgical masks didnt stop a subsequent surge throughout the country, and infection rates in Bavaria and Berlin were the same as in German states without the N95 requirement. Latest news. Methodology, Click through the PLOS taxonomy to find articles in your field. 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. Yes https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249891.t003. 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. 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. 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. This pattern of magical thinking persisted throughout the pandemic, as Miller demonstrates in dozens of graphs contrasting conventional wisdom with cruel reality. New Zealand recently lifted all restrictions following 10 days with no new cases. 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. Jocelyn Solis-Moreira is a journalist specializing in health and science news. 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. But since people were allowed to remove their masks while eating and drinking, requiring them to cover their faces upon entry was more a symbolic gesture than a serious safeguard. "Lifting of mask mandates across the board without consideration of the caveats does open the opportunity for another wave," Werler says. States That Imposed Few Restrictions Now Have the Worst Outbreaks. In the United States, policies on mask wearing have varied from state to state over the course of the pandemic. 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). (Though todays ruling by U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in Tampa, declaring the Biden administrations mask mandate for public transportation unlawful, comes as welcome news.) For policies on physical distancing, we recorded whether a stay-at-home order was issued and, if so, when. 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. If you add up all the numbers on those two lines, you find that the mask mandates made zero difference. 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. Rhode Island. At its highest level of containment efforts, New York state scored an 80 on the index. But with variants of concern circulating around the world, masking remains importanteven as the public battles mask fatigue. 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. If you compare California to Texas, another populous state that had no mask mandates, the case trends are also very similar, although the increase was steeper in California, where the seven-day average peaked a few days earlier. Covering up may give the maskaholics a false sense of securitybut they could breathe more easily if theyd just face the facts. Mask adherence was classified as low if in the lowest quartile and as high if in the highest quartile. From two weeks prior, to account for a lag between policies and outcomes mask was... Across the Board without consideration of the pandemic, as Miller demonstrates dozens. 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