FEE’s Jon Miltimore writes, “On Monday, US Education Secretary Miguel Cardona touted new academic research to show that masks have been effective at reducing the spread of COVID-19 in schools…

Cardona’s tweet caught the attention of Tracy Beth Høeg, an epidemiologist and physician resident at the University of California-Davis, who worked on the study cited by Cardona.

⁦@SecCardona⁩ claims WI study proves masks in schools work. Physician author of study says study proves no such thing.

Education Secretary Touts Mask Study—Gets Rebuked by Senior Author of the Study – Foundation for Economic Education https://t.co/RWBQ1Cn383

— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) October 3, 2021

‘Secretary Cardona, I was the senior author of this study,’ Høeg replied. ‘Our study is not able to give any information about the role masks played in the observed low in-school transmission rates. We had no control group so [we] don’t know if the rate would have been different without masks.’

Cardona had not responded to Høeg’s reply as of Thursday afternoon.”

Read the entire column.

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CDC: Schools with mask mandates didn’t vary significantly in COVID-19 transmissions compared to schools with optional policies

As the ACLU prepares to sue South Carolina and some other states over their ban on mask mandates, FEE’s Jon Miltimore finds some interesting statistics.

Miltimore writes, “A recent New York magazine article states that the science on masks ‘remains uncertain,’ but noted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in May published a large-scale study of COVID transmission in US schools.”

“The study, which analyzed some 90,000 elementary students in 169 Georgia schools from November 16 to December 11, found that there was no statistically significant difference in schools that required students to wear masks compared to schools where masks were optional,” Miltimore observes.

As New York magazine’s David Zweig noted, the CDC’s findings “cast doubt on the impact of many of the most common mitigation measures in American schools.”https://t.co/xclcp2WLdm

— Jon Miltimore (@miltimore79) August 25, 2021

He continues, “The 21% lower incidence in schools that required mask use among students was not statistically significant compared with schools where mask use was optional,’ the CDC said. ‘This finding might be attributed to higher effectiveness of masks among adults, who are at higher risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection but might also result from differences in mask-wearing behavior among students in schools with optional requirements.”

Miltimore adds, “As New York magazine’s David Zweig noted, these findings, as well as other statistically insignificant preventive measures, “cast doubt on the impact of many of the most common mitigation measures in American schools.”

Read the entire column here.

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