On July 3rd, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly instituted a mask mandate secondary to increasing COVID 19 cases. Not increasing deaths. Not because hospitals were overwhelmed and could not take care of these patients. Was done because of the numbers of cases.
On August 5th, Lee Norman MD, the Top Doc for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, held a news conference in which he proceeded to show a chart for mask-wearing and none mask-wearing counties. He proceeded with the narrative that counties following the mask mandate were improving with their daily case rates. The counties not following the mask mandate were not improving, therefore, masks make a difference.
Kansas counties are allowed by law not to follow a Governor’s emergency declarations. 90 Kansas counties opted out of the mask mandate. Here is a map from the Kansas City Star showing the counties. There were a couple of cities including Manhattan, home of Kansas State University, and Witchita in southern Kansas following the mask mandate. Those counties were counted in the “Mask Wearing” count.
The chart which Dr. Norman showed is shown below. Notice the difference in the numbers along the right and left y-axis.
The online news source of the Kansas Policy Institute, The Sentinel, looked at this and identified the false presentation of data. They recreated the chart.
Notice since the y-axis is now labeled correct for this chart, though a small decrease with mask use, the “no mask” mostly rural counties have always continued to be much more below the “mask” mostly urban counties. Interestingly, The Sentinel and Kansas Policy Institute have repeatedly asked for the data used in the Kansas Health Department’s calculations. There was a delay, but finally, when The Sentinel was able to review the date and more data points put into the chart, this was the result.
There was actually a large increase before tapering in the “mask” counties. Why did Dr. Norman, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, or anyone at the Health Dept. not want to begin the data on the date of the mask mandate. Could that large spike coincide with the residual effect of the George Floyd/ BLM protests?
Please review the articles by The Sentinel and watch the instructive video below reproducing how the manipulation was created.
Masks can protect a particularly susceptible segment of our citizens, but only if they wear the correct N95 masks. Otherwise, senior citizens and others are still getting the virus because…. it is a virus.
