because compliance was voluntary... the study merely had leaders in the community wear masks and provided free masks to those that wanted them plus education an

because compliance was voluntary... the study merely had leaders in the community wear masks and provided free masks to those that wanted them plus education and reminders; it wasn't a compulsory thing so this is mainly a lower bound on effectiveness. > Providing free masks, informing people about the importance of covering both the mouth and nose, reminding people in-person when they were unmasked in public, and role-modeling by community leaders tripled regular mask usage compared with control villages that received no interventions, the researchers found.