Wearing masks & closing restaurants has less than 3% impact on spread of Covid

The CDC recently published the results of their biggest study to date on masks and restaurants opening.

In their summary, they state:

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Mandating masks was associated with a decrease in daily COVID-19 case and death growth rates within 20 days of implementation. Allowing on-premises restaurant dining was associated with an increase in daily COVID-19 case growth rates 41–100 days after implementation and an increase in daily death growth rates 61–100 days after implementation.

What are the implications for public health practice?

Mask mandates and restricting any on-premises dining at restaurants can help limit community transmission of COVID-19 and reduce case and death growth rates. These findings can inform public policies to reduce community spread of COVID-19.

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And the mainstream media hopped right on it.

The message to the public was: the new study proves masks and restaurant closures work and if you lift restrictions, you'll kill people.

Okay, so what were the actual numbers?

Q. By how much did masks decrease the daily growth rate of Covid cases?

A. 81-100 days after the mandate was introduced: 1.8%

Q. And by how much did restricting on-premises dining increase the growth rate of Covid cases?

A. Peaked at 61-80 days on...... 1.2%

(Source: The Highwire, 11th March 2021 - Timecode 05:00-19:00)

So, 97% of the time, wearing masks and closing restaurants makes zero difference.

People are potentially harming themselves psychologically and physically by wearing masks and hospitality businesses and livelihoods across the world are being decimated for the sake of a 3% difference in Covid cases.

Insanity. Open up.