[NBC/DFW via Dallas News] A new national study adds strong Yes, it can, especially compared to being locked in your room.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the study Friday.
"All of this is very consistent," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a White House briefing on Friday. "You have decreases in cases and deaths when you wear masks, and you have increases in cases and deaths when you have in-person restaurant dining."
Unless you're a (D) big-shot.
The study was released just as some states are rescinding mask mandates and restaurant limits. Earlier this week, Texas became the biggest state to lift its mask rule, joining a movement by many governors to loosen COVID-19 restrictions despite pleas from So like the media said the other day, Texas Gov. Abbott is an idiot!
The new research builds on smaller CDC studies, including one that found that people in 10 states who became infected in July were more likely to have dined at a restaurant and another that found mask mandates in 10 states were associated with reductions in hospitalizations.
I remember that one. The list of qualifications at the end was impressive. There was no differentiation between indoor and patio dining, for example. Nor in the new/rehashed study, it appears.
The reductions in growth rates varied from half a percentage point to nearly 2 percentage points. That may sound small, but the large number of people involved means the impact grows with time, experts said.
The percentage is different when there's a bigger number?
"Each day that growth rate is going down, the cumulative effect — in terms of cases and deaths — adds up to be quite substantial," said Gery Guy Jr., a CDC scientist who was the study's lead author.
Unless, of course, the vaccine kicks in and affects the extrapolation.
Reopening restaurant dining was not followed by a significant increase in cases and deaths in the first 40 days after restrictions were lifted. But after that, there were increases of about 1 percentage point in the growth rate of cases and ‐ later ‐ 2 to 3 percentage points in the growth rate of deaths.
The delay could be because restaurants didn't re-open immediately and because many customers may have been hesitant to dine in right after restrictions were lifted, Guy said.
But he's guessing now; that wasn't part of the study.
The CDC Study concludes with the limitations:The findings in this report are subject to at least three limitations. First, although models controlled for mask mandates, restaurant and bar closures, stay-at-home orders, and gathering bans, the models did not control for other policies that might affect case and death rates, including other types of business closures, physical distancing recommendations, policies issued by localities, and variances granted by states to certain counties if variances were not made publicly available.
Second, compliance with and enforcement of policies were not measured.
Finally, the analysis did not differentiate between indoor and outdoor dining, adequacy of ventilation, and adherence to physical distancing and occupancy requirements.
But it does support the current narrative.