A group at Harvard University has summarized the results of research that shows that the wearing of masks, which has been done as a countermeasure against the new corona, has increased significantly in children and faculty members in American schools where the obligation to wear masks has been lifted.
It is said that wearing a mask has the effect of reducing the number of infected people and reducing the number of days absent from school.
This research was conducted by groups such as Harvard University and published in the international medical journal "New England Journal of Medicine".
The group consists of 70 districts around Boston in the eastern part of the United States that lifted the obligation to wear masks at school in February this year, and two that did not lift the obligation to wear masks because they tended to have a large number of children per classroom. We compared the infection status of about 340,000 children and teachers in the district.
As a result, in areas where the obligation to wear masks was lifted, 134.4 children and teachers were infected per 1,000 people in about three and a half months, while in areas where they continued to wear masks, the number was 66.1.
Statistically, the research group estimated that the number of infected people increased by 44.9 per 1,000 people, a total of more than 11,900 people, due to the lifting of the obligation to wear them, which is about 30% of the infected children and teachers. and
The research group has no clear evidence that wearing masks interferes with children's learning and development, and says that it is effective in reducing the number of infected people and reducing the number of absentee days, and is an effective means of spreading infection.