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  • Association of social dista...
    Kwon, Sohee; Joshi, Amit D; Lo, Chun-Han; Drew, David A; Nguyen, Long H; Guo, Chuan-Guo; Ma, Wenjie; Mehta, Raaj S; Shebl, Fatma Mohamed; Warner, Erica T; Astley, Christina M; Merino, Jordi; Murray, Benjamin; Wolf, Jonathan; Ourselin, Sebastien; Steves, Claire J; Spector, Tim D; Hart, Jaime E; Song, Mingyang; VoPham, Trang; Chan, Andrew T

    Nature communications, 06/2021, Letnik: 12, Številka: 1
    Journal Article

    Given the continued burden of COVID-19 worldwide, there is a high unmet need for data on the effect of social distancing and face mask use to mitigate the risk of COVID-19. We examined the association of community-level social distancing measures and individual face mask use with risk of predicted COVID-19 in a large prospective U.S. cohort study of 198,077 participants. Individuals living in communities with the greatest social distancing had a 31% lower risk of predicted COVID-19 compared with those living in communities with poor social distancing. Self-reported 'always' use of face mask was associated with a 62% reduced risk of predicted COVID-19 even among individuals living in a community with poor social distancing. These findings provide support for the efficacy of mask-wearing even in settings of poor social distancing in reducing COVID-19 transmission. Despite mass vaccination campaigns in many parts of the world, continued efforts at social distancing and face mask use remain critically important in reducing the spread of COVID-19.