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A new study by Arizona State researchers found that wearing face masks and coverings during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic could help curb the spread of the virus and prevent more deaths.
Using data from New York and Washington - two of the states hit hardest by the virus - researchers recommended that the general public should wear face masks during the pandemic.
“Face mask use by the general public for limiting the spread of the COVID-19 is controversial, though increasingly recommended, and the potential of this intervention is not well understood,” they wrote. “The broad adoption of even relatively ineffective face masks may meaningfully reduce community transmission of COVID-19.
“Mask use decreases the effective transmission rate in nearly linear proportion to the product of mask effectiveness and coverage rate, while the impact on (deaths and hospitalizations) indicate masks could synergies with other non-pharmaceutical measures (to prevent the spread of the virus).”
According to the researchers, the data suggests that the use of masks could reduce the number of deaths due to the virus by between 17 percent and 45 percent in the next two months.
The full study from Arizona State University can be found here.
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