How useful, or useless, are the masks. Data in comparison

Especially in the United States, many states and counties are returning to impose the obligation to wear protective masks indoors, schools etc, all after the CDC has returned to advise them. But are these tools useful in reality? Precisely the American federal structure and therefore the fact that the obligation has been imposed in a differentiated way from area to area, allows us to compare different choices and the effect they have had.

Let's start by comparing three southern states: Louisiana, Missouri, and Arkansas. These three states first inserted and then removed the obligation to wear masks, but, during the latest wave now underway, only Louisiana reinserted the obligation to wear protection. Let's see the comparative trend:

The effect is zero, even negative: cases have increased more in the country that has relinquished the obligation, but this does not automatically mean a causal link. They simply did not reduce the contagion. They are useless.

Another case is Nevada, where some counties have decided to reintroduce the obligation to wear masks, others have not. Also in this case the counties with the obligation of the masks have had a greater number of cases.

At this point, why continue to apply this obligation, especially in places not very frequented, yet we continue to want to advise on the obligation. The problem is not health, but of power and obedience: on the one hand governments must demonstrate that they are doing something, on the other the mask is the visible demonstration of the obedience instilled in people. The issue is not health, but the manipulation of the popular will.

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The article How useful, or useless, are masks. Comparison data comes from ScenariEconomici.it .

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This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/quanto-sono-utili-o-inutili-le-maschere-dati-a-confronto/ on Mon, 23 Aug 2021 07:00:17 +0000.