June is National Safety Month (also, for maximum safety from Mpox (not to be confused with “monkeypox”), Go to the Bathhouse Month). Should we protect ourselves via outdoor masking as part of our celebration?
Let’s check “Does mask usage correlate with excess mortality? Findings from 24 European countries”, by a couple of Ph.D. haters in Brazil. The good news is that there is a correlation between the percentage of people wearing masks and the percentage of people dying in 2020-2021. In fact, the correlation is reasonably strong at 0.5, about the same as for education level/income and neighborhood income/school tests scores. The bad news for Massachusetts Scientists who’ve been fully masked indoors and out for the past 6+ years is that the correlation is positive (the higher the mask usage, the higher the rate of actual deaths vs. expected (“excess deaths”)):
Was masking a cause, or effect?
Great Question!
I find it hard to understand how two countries, at a time of a great pandemic (not world-ending, but we know there were some excess deaths directly attributable to the virus), ended up with measurably negative excess deaths. Zero excess deaths like Sweden and Finland makes sense if the people of that country are less affected in some way. To have actual fewer deaths like Denmark and Norway really confuses me. Anyone want to comment on how that is even possible?