A new study published by the CDC shows that masks in schools are effective at stopping the spread of COVID.
Ashley Weedn is a pediatrician at OU Health. She said on a Healthier Oklahoma press conference Tuesday that schools requiring masks see significantly less COVID spread according to the study.
“What it showed is that mask requirements are 3.5 times more likely to reduce an outbreak in schools. So we actually have pretty good data now for mask effectiveness in schools,” said Weedn.
Weedn said this study is different than some conducted last year because the new study focuses specifically on masks.
The study took place in Arizona because the school year starts early there, in mid-July. Researchers gathered data on students in the two counties that include Phoenix and Tuscon.
Only 21% of schools in these counties required masks at the start of the year. But 60% of the 191 outbreaks that happened within the first week of school were in unmasked schools.