Associations between COVID-19 results and mask obligations, compliance and attitudes

Release Date: June 23, 2021:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0252315

Commentary

This study is said to be an extension of a study that investigated the impact of masks on COVID-19 outcomes by examining unprecedented breadth and health outcomes, geographic resolution, types of mask obligations, early and late waves, and controlling for and analyzing other government interventions, mobility test rates, and weather.

The mask mandate showed a statistically significant reduction in new cases and a reduction in mortality. It is also shown to be associated with a significant reduction in hospitalization rates up to 40 days after introduction.

These results indicate that the impact of the mask is significant, representing 14% of the maximum number of cases recorded, 13% of deaths, and 7% of hospitalization rates. We also found that the mask mandate increased mask compliance by 23.4 percentage points in four different states.

The recent lifting of the mask mandate is estimated to be associated with a -3.19 percentage point decrease in compliance and a decrease of 12 per 100,000 in new cases each day.

Finally, using a large new survey dataset of 874,000 responses in 69 countries, we show that community mask compliance and community attitudes toward masks are associated with reductions in COVID-19 cases and deaths.