Masks mandates have major impact, study finds

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Analysis shows requiring masks for public-facing U.S. business employees on April 1 would have saved tens of thousands of lives.

Peter Dizikes | MIT News Office
August 4, 2020

The research described in this article has been published as a working paper but has not yet been peer-reviewed by experts in the field.

Masks reduce the spread of Covid-19. But just how much of an effect do they have? A study co-authored by an MIT professor finds that if the U.S. had introduced a uniform national mask mandate for employees of public-facing businesses on April 1, the number of deaths in the U.S. would likely have been 40 percent lower on June 1.

“It is a very effective policy that includes relatively little economic disruption,” says Victor Chernozhukov, a professor in the Department of Economics and the Statistics and Data Science Center at MIT, and one of the authors of a paper detailing the study’s results. “We found it produced a considerable reduction in fatalities.”

Among other findings about the ongoing pandemic, drawing on the timing of state policy announcements, medical data, and Google mobility data, the study also shows that in the same timeframe, total Covid-19 cases in the U.S. would have likely been 80 percent higher without the stay-at-home orders implemented by the vast majority of states.

http://news.mit.edu/2020/masks-mandates-impact-deaths-0805

Thoughts?

 

[Trausti]

Hindsight is 20/20. It was called the “Novel” coronavirus because it was new and there was much to learn. What if there had been a mask mandate in December 2019?

 

[Toni]

Analysis shows requiring masks for public-facing U.S. business employees on April 1 would have saved tens of thousands of lives.

Peter Dizikes | MIT News Office
August 4, 2020

The research described in this article has been published as a working paper but has not yet been peer-reviewed by experts in the field.

Masks reduce the spread of Covid-19. But just how much of an effect do they have? A study co-authored by an MIT professor finds that if the U.S. had introduced a uniform national mask mandate for employees of public-facing businesses on April 1, the number of deaths in the U.S. would likely have been 40 percent lower on June 1.

“It is a very effective policy that includes relatively little economic disruption,” says Victor Chernozhukov, a professor in the Department of Economics and the Statistics and Data Science Center at MIT, and one of the authors of a paper detailing the study’s results. “We found it produced a considerable reduction in fatalities.”

Among other findings about the ongoing pandemic, drawing on the timing of state policy announcements, medical data, and Google mobility data, the study also shows that in the same timeframe, total Covid-19 cases in the U.S. would have likely been 80 percent higher without the stay-at-home orders implemented by the vast majority of states.

http://news.mit.edu/2020/masks-mandates-impact-deaths-0805

Thoughts?

Certainly by April 1, a mask mandate nation wide as well as mandatory quarantine for ALL persons and products from outside the US should have been in place. A month earlier, nursing homes and senior living complexes were already locking down or at a minimum, severely limiting visitors. It seems crazy to think that the government would not have had better information about national trends than nursing homes and senior living complexes had already figured out for their residents. Even with Numbnuts in charge.

This needs to happen NOW, although it will need to be in place longer. the idea of starting school for anybody is nuts--and unfortunately, school has started in some states. This is just madness.

 

[prideandfall]

Thoughts?

that months and months into this being a global viral outbreak there is a not insubstantial portion of the US population shitting their pants over masks defying god's law, masks causing covid19, masks making you sicker, masks being governmental tyranny, and the whole covid thing being a plot by the chinese to "get their economy back" (actual quote).

this is after it has been demonstrably shown that a new disease is in circulation and causing a large spike in human deaths.

if they had issued mask orders in april, or march, people in the US would have absolutely lost their god damn minds.
nobody would have believed it, nobody would have followed it.

you cannot implement sound procedures in the face of an unending tide of human stupidity when that tide is given equal representation in governmental policy and enforcement.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Hindsight is 20/20.

It is what it is.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Thoughts?

It doesn't matter. Truth has become less and less important than right-wing tribal stupidity

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Analysis shows requiring masks for public-facing U.S. business employees on April 1 would have saved tens of thousands of lives.

Peter Dizikes | MIT News Office
August 4, 2020

The research described in this article has been published as a working paper but has not yet been peer-reviewed by experts in the field.

Masks reduce the spread of Covid-19. But just how much of an effect do they have? A study co-authored by an MIT professor finds that if the U.S. had introduced a uniform national mask mandate for employees of public-facing businesses on April 1, the number of deaths in the U.S. would likely have been 40 percent lower on June 1.

“It is a very effective policy that includes relatively little economic disruption,” says Victor Chernozhukov, a professor in the Department of Economics and the Statistics and Data Science Center at MIT, and one of the authors of a paper detailing the study’s results. “We found it produced a considerable reduction in fatalities.”

Among other findings about the ongoing pandemic, drawing on the timing of state policy announcements, medical data, and Google mobility data, the study also shows that in the same timeframe, total Covid-19 cases in the U.S. would have likely been 80 percent higher without the stay-at-home orders implemented by the vast majority of states.

http://news.mit.edu/2020/masks-mandates-impact-deaths-0805

Thoughts?

Certainly by April 1, a mask mandate nation wide as well as mandatory quarantine for ALL persons and products from outside the US should have been in place. A month earlier, nursing homes and senior living complexes were already locking down or at a minimum, severely limiting visitors.

A couple weeks, I think. The hospital was enacting protocols via the CDC on the evening of March 12. Yeah, I'm not forgetting that date. Nursing homes might have been earlier I suppose.

It seems crazy to think that the government would not have had better information about national trends than nursing homes and senior living complexes had already figured out for their residents. Even with Numbnuts in charge.

Schools were closing in Ohio and Maryland, before Trump finally says 'keep some distance' and they were scurrying around trying to get contingency plans in place before the announcement of closures.

 

[ideologyhunter]

I knew we were an immature country (Trump, road rage, Nicolas Cage movies, The Need for Semiautomatic Weapons, American Idol, Baby Boomer women with pink hair dye, Trump, "USA! USA!", 95% of Facebook, tax cuts during double feature foreign wars, all linkage of Jesus to national destiny, the national obesity rate, Vegas, Creation Museum, um, Trump) so...not that surprising.

 

[zorq]

Hindsight is 20/20. It was called the “Novel” coronavirus because it was new and there was much to learn. What if there had been a mask mandate in December 2019?

There's nothing "novel" about highly infectious and deadly diseases that spread primarily through respiratory moisture.

There is something novel about an entire political party in the US that is so skeptical of science that they are willing to throw out hundreds of years of germ theory because it's just not convenient for them.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

We didn't realize how big a factor presymptomatic spread was at that time.

There also wasn't much point to quarantining travelers, it was already here, they didn't bring in all that many cases.

There's no excuse to not have a strict nationwide mask law now, though.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

We knew a lot by April 1st.

My state began lockdown in March.

And what we were not sure about was a risk.

 

[marc]

Heard an interesting point on TYT today. A guest pointed out that some of the people who claim that businesses enforcing a mask requirement infringes on their rights, are some of the same people who said businesses should be able to refuse services like making wedding cakes for gay couples.

Yea, I know... big shock, right-wing hypocrisy...

 

[Treedbear]

Data shows Kansas mask mandates have reduced COVID-19 cases

 

[Treedbear]

:crickets:

 

[ZiprHead]

Masks could save 70,000 Americans by December, model predicts, as infections among younger people soar

(CNN) -- US coronavirus deaths could hit 300,000 by December 1, but 70,000 lives could be saved if more Americans simply wore masks, a new model predicts.

"It's a profoundly sad number" of projected death, Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University told CNN on Friday morning. "And we can think that 70,000 of those people could be saved if we would all just wear a mask every day every time we leave our front doors.

"This virus Is not just going to disappear or vanish. The virus is with us, and we're going to have to combat it, and the simple thing that we can all do is wear a mask. Please, everyone, wear your mask every day."

 

[southernhybrid]

Wear a mask and social distance, and wash your hands after you've been grocery shopping etc. Some people think that wearing a mask means it's okay not to practice social distancing, but we must do both if we want to substantially decrease the number of new cases. Sadly, that's all we have right now.