Let me first clarify that I use the word ostensibly since one could make the argument that had it not been for the mask mandates things would have been much worse. Nonetheless here’s the reality, I’ve looked at the figures state by state and the US as a whole, prior to the vaccine case counts were skyrocketing across the US. Then as the vaccine made its way into people’s arms only then did the case counts drop and did so precipitously.
Analysis - the vaccine was substantially more effective than masks. I would assume none will debate that conclusion.
Regarding the masks let me state the following. From what I have studied masks can be an effective means to prevent the spread of a virus. In particularly a new, properly fitted and worn N95 mask. So let me be clear that this is not an argument that masks do nothing. Some of the studies and data I found on certain masks had their efficacy around 90% or higher. That’s just as good or better than the vaccines. Clearly though when looking at the charts, the practice of wearing masks was nowhere close to the effectiveness of the vaccines.
There were people in power that implied that the virus was a hoax and no worse than the flu, and those same people intentionally misled the public on the dangers of covid downplayed the entire situation (including making the wearing of masks a political issue) most likely contributed to the needless deaths of many of my fellow citizens.
I know people don’t trust science, statistics or even basic numbers when it doesn’t fit their narrative, but why not? Can’t resist.
Fourteen of the 15 states with no mask wearing policy for the general public through September reported a high COVID-19 rate. Of the 8 states with at least 75% mask adherence, none reported a high COVID-19 rate. 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. 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.
In order to determine the effectiveness of masks one would have to do an analysis of the percentage of people wearing masks. To state the obvious, if there was a low percentage of people wearing masks then one could hardly expect masks to be effective under those circumstances.
There were certainly a lot of factors at play. And there still will be in the foreseeable future. There are still a lot of unanswered questions regarding variants and secondary infections. I think that there will be many studies done over the next few years. What will be important is wither or not how seriously we regard what happened in the US and worldwide.
The front line of our defense was our medical people; doctors and nurses. They had to be protected to offer all of us the most protection possible. So at first, N95 masks were limited and those went to our medical professionals. At that time, it was being sold that masks didn’t work so that there wouldn’t be competition for them. The medical professionals, including Fauci and Birx didn’t know the whole truth of what works and what didn’t. There were no professionals that had a clue regarding this virus and it’s spread when all of this began. As time went on, more was learned. Now here we are today and it’s being stated that only the N95s are truly effective.
When you compare California, state with very strict mask mandates, to Texas, a state with very loose mask mandates, the numbers are virtually identical - population of each vs cases.
