Do masks help slow spread of COVID-19 in Kansas? One study says ‘Yes,’ by as much as 50%
A University of Kansas study released this week backs up what health officials have been telling us for months: Masks do work by significantly slowing the spread of COVID-19.
“We found a 50% reduction in the spread of COVID-19 in counties that had a mask mandate compared to those without,” Donna K. Ginther, director of the Institute for Policy and Social Research at KU, said in video presenting the study’s findings.
“Masks, it is important to note, do not eliminate COVID, but they significantly slow the spread of the disease — at least here in Kansas,” she said.
The study’s release comes at a time that Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly is trying for a second time to get a statewide mask mandate implemented. Kelly had issued a statewide mask mandate July 2, but under state law Kansas’ 105 counties were allowed to opt out -- and most did.
Kelly said last week that she wanted to hold discussions with House and Senate leadership on a bipartisan mask requirement. On Tuesday, Kelly and top Republican legislators agreed to try to encourage counties to adopt local mask mandates rather than consider a statewide rule, the AP reported.
The KU study, “Do Masks Matter in Kansas,” set out to answer the question whether masks were working. The study, conducted by Ginther and Carlos Zambrana, associate researcher at the institute, compared the growth rate of cases in counties that had a mask mandate to those that do not.
The study found that counties with a mask mandate saw a decrease in their 7-day rolling average of daily cases per 100,000 population starting 14 days after the mandate, according to Ginther. Moreover, cases have remained flat, despite some spikes.
Counties without mask mandates have seen the 7-day rolling average of daily cases per 100,000 steadily increase. And in September, those counties started to have higher case rates compared to counties with a mask mandate, she said.
The study took a closer look at Johnson and Sedgwick counties and found that cases started decreasing in Johnson County 14 days after the mandate and case rates are not increasing over time. Counties without mask mandates now have much higher case rates than Johnson County.
“Sedgwick County was kind of an interesting case because the city of Wichita had a mask mandate, but the county did not until much later,” Ginther said.
The county had a decrease in case rates starting 23 days after the mandate. Case rates remained flat and then trended downward before starting to trend up. The case rates in counties without a mask mandate just trended up, she said.
The study also took into consideration people’s mobility because the more people are out and about, the more likely they are to be infected, Ginther said.
The study found that there is no affect of mask mandates on people’s mobility, she said.
Health officials on Wednesday reported that there have been 82,045 people who have been infected with the coronavirus. The number of Kansas who have died from COVID-19 crossed a major milestone Wednesday and now stands at 1,007 deaths.
This story was originally published October 28, 2020 at 5:17 PM with the headline "Do masks help slow spread of COVID-19 in Kansas? One study says ‘Yes,’ by as much as 50%."
