Our COVID-19 model projects that mask use (that’s 95% of a population wearing a mask outside of their homes) is likely to save more lives than a vaccine, even as vaccine rollout scales up.
These mask use maps of WHO regions published in July captures mask usage at a very specific moment in time, as the first wave of the pandemic was waning for many countries and territories. It tells a story of mask use compliance and the impacts of mandates on people’s health and the health of global economies. Data from the Facebook Global symptom survey (based on survey results from the University of Maryland Social Data Science Center) were used to create these infographics. The data reflect people who say they always wear a mask when in public, surveyed on July 14, 2020.