![]() ![]() We reached out to the author of the article but did not hear back.Īs evidence for its claims, the Texas Scorecard article quotes two sentences from the study out of context. "People are completely misunderstanding the study design if they are coming to that conclusion."īoth the study and the article were released as state governments considered lifting mask requirements, with five states - Texas, North Dakota, Mississippi, Iowa and Montana - opting to do so. "It’s not accurate at all to say that mask mandates played no role in decreasing COVID-19 case rates and deaths," said Cindy Prins, a clinical associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions. They were unanimous: The article’s reading of the study is off-base. We interviewed three public health experts familiar with the study and a spokesperson from the CDC. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The article was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. "CDC: Mask Mandates Made No Statistical Difference," reads the headline of an article published in Texas Scorecard that is being shared widely on Facebook. Yet a conservative news site claims that the study actually found the opposite, quoting two sentences out of context to make it appear that mask mandates had an insignificant effect on coronavirus case rates. The biggest gains have been among young adults and teens, which White House officials have attributed to vaccine mandates by colleges and employers along with increased fears from the delta variant.A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that widespread mask use significantly helped stem the spread of the coronavirus. passed the milestone this week of having 75 percent of adults at least practically vaccinated. There has been some improvement in the pace of vaccinations, which started increasing again in recent weeks after leveling off in July. In Idaho, which has some of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, officials said Tuesday they were allowing health care providers to begin rationing care to make scarce resources available to patients most likely to survive because of a severe shortage of staff, beds and equipment. States such as Florida set records for the number of patients hospitalized with Covid, as new cases across the country went well above the numbers seen last summer due to the spread of the delta variant.īut at the same time, Americans followed through on Biden’s prediction of a return to celebrations and gatherings, something that now has public health officials fearing a new wave of infections following Labor Day weekend travel and get-togethers.Īcross the country, states are seeing hospitals overwhelmed with Covid patients. The summer was indeed different, but not in the way Biden had anticipated. “An all-American summer that this country deserves after a long, long, dark winter that we’ve all endured.” “America is headed into the summer dramatically different from last year’s summer: a summer of freedom, a summer of joy, a summer of get-togethers and celebrations,” Biden predicted on June 2. ![]() ![]() White House officials said they hoped Biden’s pandemic response would restore Americans’ faith in government and make it easier to sell other aspects of his domestic agenda, like an ambitious infrastructure spending package. He’s also seen a drop in his wider approval rating, which slid 6 points since July to just 43 percent, in an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll released last week.Įntering the summer, Biden promoted his success at getting Covid cases to the lowest level since the start of the pandemic and predicted 70 percent of adults would be vaccinated by Independence Day. Biden cautioned Thursday that the country was in a "tough stretch" of the pandemic that could "last for a while" due to the delta variant and the large number of unvaccinated people who he said "can cause a lot of damage."īiden’s approval rating for his handling of the coronavirus outbreak has steadily decreased over the summer, from 63 percent at the end of June to 53 percent this week, according to the FiveThirtyEight polling average. ![]()
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