Tennessee areas where mask requirements were instituted over the summer have substantially lower death rates due to COVID-19 as compared to areas without mask requirements, according to a new analysis by Vanderbilt Department of Health Policy researchers.
The analysis, led by John Graves, PhD, associate professor of Health Policy and director of the Vanderbilt Center for Health Economic Modeling, finds that deaths per 100,000 population in the 67 counties that never required masks rose to a rate more than double the 28 counties that began requiring masks at some point between July 1 and the first week of August.