The Efficacy of Mask Mandates in the United States during the Early Days of the Pandemic

In the early days of the pandemic, there was neither a consensus in the scientific community on the efficacy of mask in controlling COVID-19 transmission, nor among policymakers in the United States on the efficacy of a public mandate on mask usage. In this chapter, we examine the effect of such a mandate on COVID-19 transmission. County-level data on reported cases were used for the analysis. We also used hospitalization data in the Dallas metropolitan area for a more refined local analysis. From the analysis, there is clear evidence for the efficacy of a mandate in controlling the transmission.