4 ms·

Schools without mask mandates are more likely to have Covid-19 outbreaks

• cratermoon 5y ago
  If only someone had predicted this.
• chiefalchemist 5y ago
  "Authors did note, however, that all children in the counties were included in the data and not just those who are school-age. They also noted that teacher vaccinate rates and school testing data were not controlled in the analyses, and that the sample size of counties is small." This is not going to be a popular insight on HN but regardless of the caveats, this is still - statistically speaking - correlation. For example, where is socioeconomic analysis? Less financially able patents are more likely to have to got to work, and thus send a perhaps exposed child to school. That is, it's not the lack of a mandate, but of financial status. Futhermore, it also makes no mention of percentage of mask wearing or not. That is, lack of a mandate makes it a choice. That does not necessarily mean everyone chooses "no thanks." I'm not pushing back against masks, mandates, etc. on way or another. I'm simply pointing out some quirks in the data collection and analysis, and how those can be used to influence the conclusion; possibly for political purposes. That is, for example, "we're hurting the poor" isn't going to go over well.