There may be more effective interventions to control the spread of the CCP virus in the United States and elsewhere than government-ordered mask mandates, the authors of a new study say.
The 25 U.S. counties with the highest number of officially reported cases of CCP virus, which causes the disease COVID-19, have rigorous mask mandates in place, as do 97 of the top 100, according to the study by the Heritage Foundation.
“From October 1 through December 13, the U.S. saw an increase of 8.8 million confirmed COVID-19 cases,” the conservative foundation’s Center for Data Analysis (CDA) reported in a study made public on Dec. 27.
“Of the 25 counties with the highest new case totals, all 25 had a mask mandate, and all but one implemented their directive prior to October; 21 of the 25 counties implemented mandates prior to August,” the CDA study said.
“Of the 100 counties with the most confirmed cases during this period, 97 had either a county-level mask mandate, a state-level mandate, or both,” CDA said.
Among this group of 97 counties, 87 began their mandate before October. In the remaining 10 counties, five issued their mask mandate in October, and five did so in November.
A number of the mandates that took effect in October or November represented even tighter controls than had previously been in force in those counties, according to CDA.
The 100 counties represent slightly more than 39 percent of all U.S. CCP virus infections and account for just under 40 percent of the nation’s total population.
The study was based on data supplied by USA Facts, a nonpartisan data compiler used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), among other federal agencies.
The study authors claimed that “these findings do not deny the efficacy of mask-wearing per se. Nor should they discourage the practice. Instead, they point to the inadequacy of public health strategies that rely predominantly on lockdowns and mask mandates.
“Governments should undertake more effective interventions…
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