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. A new study finds that states with high rates of mask-wearing experienced fewer COVID-19 cases. 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. Further, our adjustment for demographic factors at the state population level may not represent the true underlying forces that put individuals at greater risk of contracting COVID-19. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249891, Editor: Wen-Jun Tu, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, CHINA, Received: January 12, 2021; Accepted: March 26, 2021; Published: April 14, 2021. New Zealand recently lifted all restrictions following 10 days with no new cases. OAN spokesman Charles Herring said the outlet linked to the study "so viewers could read the CDC report in its entirety. "Their perspective on the study and results to me are contrary to what was stated in the actual study itself," Bisesi said. The list of states with high COVID-19 rates by month shows the initial wave in northeastern states in May, followed by a wave in southern states, and then spreading across the U.S. over the next four months (Table 2). Nedghie Adrien, Roles Coronavirus cases are rising in almost every U.S. state. J.B. Pritzker. A recent study shows that states with high levels of mask-wearing reported fewer COVID-19 cases last summer. JAMA. Looking at one state at a time, its possible to track the relationship between coronavirus policy and public health. Mask wearing has been advocated by public health officials as a way to reduce the spread of COVID-19. 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. For more information about PLOS Subject Areas, click Little attention was paid to more rigorous research, like a review of the literature that found little or no benefit from masks, or a study that compared infection rates with mask policies and with rates of mask use in all 50 states over the first year of the pandemic. I just dont know based on reading the OAN summary how they came to the same conclusions because the CDC conclusions were favorable.. If this is true, we would expect associations between mask adherence and high COVID-19 rates to be even stronger. That second observation requires a caveat, since testing rates affect the number of cases that are recorded. 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. 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. Overall, there is no obvious difference between states with mask mandates and states without them. Both mask policy and mask adherence for states and D.C. were cross-tabulated with high case rates in the subsequent month. The requirement is expected to be lifted on March 1. Over a third of states are ending COVID-19 mask mandates. Using an index that tracks policy responses to the pandemic, these charts show the number of new virus cases and hospitalizations in each state relative to the states recent containment measures. In the United States, policies on mask wearing have varied from state to state over the course of the pandemic. Our study accounted for temporality by staggering COVID-19 outcome data after adherence measures. Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work. 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. The claim that a CDC study found face masks to have a negligible effect on the spread of COVID-19 is FALSE. He Kept Quiet. Maskaholics in the press are calling for permanent masking on trains, planes, and buses. Yes The mandate will still require masks where . 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]. Thus, subsequent comparisons of states with high COVID-19 rates by month focused on July, August, September and October. Methodology, In contrast, allowing on . PLOS ONE promises fair, rigorous peer review, The information in this article is current as of the date listed, which means newer information may be available when you read this. Accessibility | Yes No, Is the Subject Area "Health care policy" applicable to this article? They continued to fall over the 100 days analyzed in the study. 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 review & editing, Affiliation States with mask mandates saw higher mask adherence. When the outbreak slammed the New York City area in March and April, leaders locked down. 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. 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. Note: Measurements of government response come from the Oxford Covid-19 Government Response Trackers Containment and Health Index, which is the organizations index focused on virus containment and protecting citizen health. Former Arizona AG Found No Evidence of 2020 Election Fraud. 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. 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. 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]. Jacob Sullum is a senior editor at Reason. 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. States with stronger policy responses over the long run are seeing comparatively smaller outbreaks. California's state of emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic is finally over, ending on Tuesday after nearly three years in place. Beyond the question of how effective masking is in practice, there is the question of what impact mask mandates have on behavior. [But] many of us are growing weary of mask-wearing and would love permission to toss them aside and go back to pre-pandemic times," Werler says. The 2-week rate in July in Arizona = 43,088 cases/7,278,717 population in 2019 = 0.00592 or 592 per 100,000. Yes In contrast, average adherence was 68% in the 15 states with lower COVID-19 rates in October and any mask policy in September. Even Greenpeace now admits the obvious: recycling doesnt work. The question is and Im sure thats the conversation now happening in the halls of power what do we do next? 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. John Bel Edwards emergency order will . The opposite was true for states with mandates. The study referenced in the One America News Network report says the opposite, noting that mask mandates were linked to statistically significant decreases in COVID-19 case within 20 days of implementation. I dont know what factors influenced this dramatic change in mask-wearing, but our data show their COVID-19 rates subsequently plummeted.. No, Is the Subject Area "United States" applicable to this article? Its a difficult addiction to overcome, according to the Japanese therapists who specialize in treating itbut a simple remedy might help some maskaholics. 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. Many experts acknowledge that the rise and fall of waves is a bit of a mystery.". The same study found that cloth masks did not have a statistically significant effect. here. Indeed all 13 states in the low mask adherence group in September had high COVID-19 rates in October. Several cities and large counties, including Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Hillsborough (which includes Tampa), had mask requirements, but Gov. 2021;325(10):998-999. doi:10.1001/jama.2021.1505. 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. 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. Eleven states had no stay-at-home order, 15 had no mask policy, and four states had low adherence throughout this six-month period. Germanys stringent policies have made it a consistent media darling. Our research examines mask wearing policy and adherence in association with COVID-19 case rates. "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. Several other states have implemented or tightened. Virginia. Our analysis suggests high adherence to mask wearing could be a key factor in reducing the spread of COVID-19. Laboratory studies indicate that masks, especially N95 respirators, can help reduce virus transmission. By contrast, Florida has no statewide restrictions. Methodology, 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. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249891.s001. 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. Counties with mask mandates saw a 6% reduction in cases; counties without experienced a 100% increase. 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 authors found that the growth rate of new coronavirus cases and deaths dropped after mask mandates were put in place. Verywell Health's content is for informational and educational purposes only. Once you start thinking about acting, it probably is the time to act.. Yes The graph tracks the results of a natural experiment that occurred nationwide during the pandemic. The worst outbreaks in the country now are in places where policymakers did the least to prevent transmission, according to the Oxford index. How Are States Responding to CDC Mask Guidelines? Experts interviewed by USA TODAY said the One America News Network had "misinterpreted" or "mischaracterized" the findings of the CDC study. By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira This pattern of magical thinking persisted throughout the pandemic, as Miller demonstrates in dozens of graphs contrasting conventional wisdom with cruel reality. Most states in the low quartile had high COVID-19 rates in the subsequent month. 2.18.2022 4:30 PM. Most states imposed tight restrictions in the spring even if they did not have bad outbreaks then. He adds that the two states "had nearly identical infection rates.". 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%. Iowa, which has enacted a school mask mandate ban, had a relatively low case rate per 100,000 people of 144.7. One America News Network on March 7 published an article under the headline CDC: Face masks dont prevent COVID-19, study finds masks have negligible impact on coronavirus numbers. The post claims the CDC has admitted face masks do little to prevent the spread of COVID-19 amid mounting pressure to lift mask mandates across the U.S., Butthe CDCs study doesnt say that. Click through the PLOS taxonomy to find articles in your field. Traveling This Summer? Many local leaders went further. No, PLOS is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation, #C2354500, based in San Francisco, California, US, Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249891, https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#new-hospital-admissions, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/more/masking-science-sars-cov2.html, https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/these-are-the-states-with-mask-mandates, https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/masking-lack-of-evidence-with-politics/, https://cepr.org/sites/default/files/CovidEconomics43.pdf, https://covid19.healthdata.org/united-states-of-america?view=mask-use&tab=trend, https://doi.org/10.18148/srm/2020.v14i2.7761, https://data.cdc.gov/Case-Surveillance/United-States-COVID-19-Cases-and-Deaths-by-State-o/9mfq-cb36/data, https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/county-level-data-sets/download-data/, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/indicators.html#thresholds, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/index.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Fneed-extra-precautions%2Fpeople-at-increased-risk.html. Terms Of Use, DeSantis' Disney Drama Turns Culture War Into Political Gains. 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. 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. Thank you for supporting our journalism. Researchers aggregate those indicators and assign a number from 0 to 100 to each governments total response. Prior to adopting mask mandates, those municipalities that eventually adopted mandates had higher transmission rates than the rest of the state, with the mean case rate difference per 100,000 people increasing by 0.32 cases per day (slope of difference = 0.32; 95% CI 0.13 to 0.51). No, Is the Subject Area "Public and occupational health" applicable to this article? Research suggests that mandatory mask-wearing policies correlated with a lower number of COVID-19 infections and deaths. 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). Wearing masks is a CDC-recommended* approach to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), by reducing the spread of respiratory droplets into the air when a person coughs, sneezes, or talks and by reducing the inhalation of these droplets by the wearer. Theyre not looking at masks in and of themselves," Josh Petrie, research professor in the University of Michigan's School of Public Health, told USA TODAY. For now, relaxing some mask guidelines while staying vigilant is the government's compromise. Higher mask use (rather than mandates per se) has been argued to decrease COVID-19 growth rates. 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. Data curation, 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. We were not able to measure statistical interactions between mask policy and adherence due to instability arising from small numbers. While it controlled for other policies that have been used to try to mitigate new infections from the coronavirus including bar closures, stay-at-home orders and bans on gatherings of 10 or more people it did not account for some others, such as physical distancing recommendations and other types of business closures. More detailed message would go here to provide context for the user and how to proceed. States That Imposed Few Restrictions Now Have the Worst Outbreaks. She holds a Masters in Psychology concentrating on Behavioral Neuroscience. 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. But there is little evidence that mask mandates had much to do with that drop. We did estimate odds ratios for mask adherence within subgroups of states with and without mask policy. Some reopened quickly and saw cases rise. Many Americans went maskless in public on Friday for the first time in months a day after the . 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. 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). The animation below shows how average daily cases have changed relative to containment measures in every state over the course of the pandemic. According to Werler, Arizona's data was unexpected. Adherence to public policy is influenced by a complex interplay of factors such as public opinion, cultural practices, individual perceptions and behaviors [11], which are difficult to quantify. Covering up may give the maskaholics a false sense of securitybut they could breathe more easily if theyd just face the facts. 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. (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.) 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. We thank Drs. The claim that a CDC study found face masks to have a negligible effect on the spread of COVID-19 is FALSE. The Kentucky senator presses on with his fight against the federal governments Covid response. 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. Another consideration is that access to COVID-19 testing appears to vary from state to state [21]. Here's what it could mean for all of us. No, Is the Subject Area "Conservation science" applicable to this article? 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. 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. Data on population distributions from the COVID-19 US State Policy Database [13] came from the US Census. Visualization, 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. Just as in the United States, the mask mandates in Germany produced no net benefits but plenty of inconvenience as well as outright harm. Conceptualization, Weak recent containment measures and many cases. Formal analysis, Petrie came to the same conclusion as Bisesiafter reading the study, saying the results were statistically significant. | Higher mask use did not predict lower maximum growth rates, smaller surges, or . In the United States, policies on mask wearing have varied from state to state over the course of the pandemic [6]. No, Is the Subject Area "Public policy" applicable to this article? Yes More state leaders acted to strike down mask mandates on Thursday, citing a decline in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. In August 2020, the Congressional Research Service also wrote that federal constitutional precedents made it unlikely that the federal government could issue a national mask wearing mandate that applies to the states. 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. While the downtrend could also have been a result of other countermeasures like social distancing, Kansas' findings mirror observations from other states and countries. Privacy Policy | But even allowing for differences in testing rates, the similarity in case trends is striking. 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. Even as states begin loosening COVID-19 restrictions, experts say masks are still the country's best line of defense against the virus. On the spread of COVID-19 infections and deaths COVID-19 restrictions, experts say masks still. 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