Click through the PLOS taxonomy to find articles in your field. The. 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. Formal analysis, Nedghie Adrien, Roles In fact, the researchers calculated that for every 1% increase in wearing a mask in September, the odds of having high state-wide COVID-19 rates dropped by 26%. 2023 Dotdash Media, Inc. All rights reserved, Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. 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. But the researchers found no clear relationship between mask mandates and mask use. Note: State containment measures are shown from two weeks prior, reflecting what experts say is a lag between new policies and results. Our analysis suggests high adherence to mask wearing could be a key factor in reducing the spread of COVID-19. New York. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) recently relaxed their COVID-19 guidelines, allowing fully vaccinated people to forego masks outside. We thank Drs. 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. And in New York and some other states, those lockdowns came too late to prevent a big outbreak, because thats where the virus hit first, said Thomas Hale, associate professor of global public policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, who leads the Oxford tracking effort. Based on data from various countries and U.S. states from May to September 2020, a preprint study published last June found that general mask wearing was associated with a reduction in virus. The study also did not measure compliance with and enforcement of mask mandates and prohibitions on dining at restaurants. We divided the monthly number by 2.2 to obtain the number in a two-week period (43,088). 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. He Kept Quiet. They continued to fall over the 100 days analyzed in the study. California's state of emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic is finally over, ending on Tuesday after nearly three years in place. here. Over the course of the pandemic, the scientific evidence and our understanding of masks have grown. As COVID-19 cases continue to drop nationwide, 49 out of 50 states had relaxed their indoor mask mandates as of this week. 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.. ", 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.. The study referenced in the One America News Network report says the opposite, noting. Conceptualization, | States in COVID-19 high-risk categories are listed in Table 1. No, Is the Subject Area "Public and occupational health" applicable to this article? Many local leaders went further. Masks prevent you from inhaling or exhaling viral droplets that can linger in the air. Nationwide, according to theNew York Times database, the seven-day average of daily new cases rose sharply from mid-December to January 17 and has fallen just as sharply since then, which is consistent with the experience in other countries after omicron emerged. 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. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249891.t002. "Arizona surprised me because they went from having the second-lowest mask adherence in May and June [less than 22%] to the highest level in July and August [greater than 80%]. Beyond the question of how effective masking is in practice, there is the question of what impact mask mandates have on behavior. 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). No, Is the Subject Area "Hispanic people" applicable to this article? Massachusetts. Public health policy-making requires navigating the balance of public good and individual rights [10]. Larry Hogan called on the State Board of Education to . 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. | Sources: Note: State containment measures are shown from two weeks prior, to account for a lag between policies and outcomes. 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. 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. But with variants of concern circulating around the world, masking remains importanteven as the public battles mask fatigue. Though many have taken fresh steps to contain the virus since then, the Times analysis compares cases and hospitalizations for a given date to a states index score from two weeks before, since researchers say it is reasonable to expect a lag between a policy's implementation and its outcome. Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, United States of America, Roles Here's what it could mean for all of us. 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. But in each state, as Miller shows, infection rates remained lower in the counties that did not mandate masks. Doug Burgum reopened the state nearly fully in May. Louisiana. In fact, it doesn't study mask efficacy at all. When the state faced a surge of cases over the summer, the governor closed bars and placed limits on restaurant capacity. The global pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 has overwhelmed health care systems, marked by peak numbers of hospital and intensive care unit admissions and deaths [1,2]. 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.. 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. Should You Wear a Mask at Outdoor Events? The masks in Germany obviously didnt beat Covid. From the start of the pandemic through this spring, the cumulative rate of Covid mortality has been slightly higher in Sweden than in Germany (by about 15 percent), but the rate of overall excess mortality has been slightly higher in Germany (by about 8 percent). By contrast, Florida has no statewide restrictions. 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. Another consideration is that access to COVID-19 testing appears to vary from state to state [21]. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Thus, policy and adherence levels in a given month were contrasted with lagged COVID-19 case rates in the subsequent month. Charlie B. Fischer, When Can I Dine Indoors Again After Being Fully Vaccinated? 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. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order May 3, 2021. that barred local governments and school systems from imposing COVID-19 restrictions, including mask rules. Parents have pushed for the mask mandate to be lifted for a number of reasons. While mandates required shoppers to don masks before entering supermarkets, for example, the risk of transmission in such settings is low, given the amount of time customers usually spend in them, the size of the air space, and typically wide distances between patrons. But the study did not take into account other policies or voluntary safeguards that may have differed between jurisdictions with and without mask mandates. The claim: CDC study found that face masks have a negligible effect on the spread of COVID-19. Data released by the agency in November looking at COVID-19 incidence in Kansas after a statewide mask mandate also found the measure resulted in a drop in infectious cases. The findings were published in the journal PLOS One in April. 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. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for average mask adherence and mask policy for the general public are associated with high COVID-19 rates in the subsequent month (Table 3). Based on CDC at-risk guidelines for COVID-19 [20], we considered non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, age, and population density as potential confounders. The States and Mask Mandates. 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. All reviews and studies included in this document report on data collected in a time period prior The current surge is worst in places with few containment measures. It also examined the link between allowing on-site restaurant dining and the number of coronavirus cases and deaths. Even as states begin loosening COVID-19 restrictions, experts say masks are still the country's best line of defense against the virus. February 28, 2023 at 5:55 am EST. The information in this article is current as of the date listed, which means newer information may be available when you read this. Once you start thinking about acting, it probably is the time to act.. 18, 2020. Several other states have implemented or tightened. 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. The 2-week rate in July in Arizona = 43,088 cases/7,278,717 population in 2019 = 0.00592 or 592 per 100,000. We abstracted daily percentages of the population who say they always wear a mask in public. Similar reductions in odds of high COVID-19 rates in August and September were observed for July and August mask adherence, respectively. Writing original draft, 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. 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. Nor did it look at actual mask wearing, as opposed to legal requirements. Masks make no difference in reducing the spread of Covid, according to an extensive new review by Cochranethe gold standard for evaluating health interventions. Most states imposed tight restrictions in the spring even if they did not have bad outbreaks then. 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. Further analyses of more granular geographic regions would be a logical next step. "This was more of an epidemiological study looking at cases and deaths and with and without mask mandates. Its Legacy Is Disastrous. 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 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. Virginia. Decreases in the rate of new infections and deaths from the virus were statistically significant, the studys authors found. May 16, 2021 / 7:07 AM / CBS News. According to Werler, Arizona's data was unexpected. 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. Gov. 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. Data on population distributions from the COVID-19 US State Policy Database [13] came from the US Census. The worst outbreaks in the country now are in places where policymakers did the least to prevent transmission, according to the Oxford index. Study: States With Mask Mandates Saw Fewer Summertime COVID Cases. Data Availability: Data are available in the paper and its Supporting Information file. The same basic pattern was seen in nearly every state. 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. 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. She finds that mask-wearing is still the best course of action for mixed-vaccination status gatherings. We show supporting evidence for reducing the spread of COVID-19 through mask wearing. 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. The same study found that cloth masks did not have a statistically significant effect. 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. 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. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, March 5, ", U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Nov. 27, 2020, ", Health Affairs, June 16 2020, "Community Use Of Face Masks And COVID-19: Evidence From A Natural Experiment Of State Mandates In The US", Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America, Dec. 3, 2020, ", U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Feb. 12, ", CDC: Face masks dont prevent COVID-19, study finds masks have negligible impact on coronavirus numbers., Association of State-Issued Mask Mandates and Allowing On-Premises Restaurant Dining with County-Level COVID-19 Case and Death Growth Rates United States, March 1December 31, 2020, Trends in County-Level COVID-19 Incidence in Counties With and Without a Mask Mandate Kansas, June 1August 23, 2020, Governor Laura Kelly Announces Masks Must be Worn Statewide, Differences in rapid increases in county-level COVID-19 incidence by implementation of statewide closures and mask mandates United States, June 1September 30, 2020, Germany to oblige mandatory face masks from Monday, Face masks considerably reduce COVID-19 cases in Germany, Decline in COVID-19 Hospitalization Growth Rates Associated with Statewide Mask Mandates 10 States, MarchOctober 2020, subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. 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