The Cost Argument: Requiring Masks for COVID-19

Patients Rising, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to providing support and education to people with chronic and life-threatening illnesses, summarizes the “wear a mask” debate in the United States.  A natural study out of the University of Iowa evidenced that the implementation of mask usage between April 8 ^th to May 15^th in 15 different States plus DC suggest that between 230,000 – 450,000 cases of Covid-19 were possibly averted. Another international study concluded that  government policies supporting the wearing of masks by the public, as well as international travel controls, are independently associated with lower per-capita mortality from COVID-19.

The non-profit organization concludes: ” Empirical data of this kind, the nation’s current inability to test and report quickly, combined with the absence of a vaccine leaves very little room for other solutions for the time being. That is why you should wear a mask.”