Analysis of the Effectiveness of Face-Coverings on the Death Ratio of COVID-19 Using Machine Learning
This study provides evidence for the effectiveness of mask mandates in reducing COVID-19 death ratios for public health officials and policymakers, though the findings are specific to the US West Coast and based on correlational analysis.
This paper investigated the correlation between mask mandates and the COVID-19 death ratio (daily deaths/daily cases) in US West Coast counties. Using machine learning, the study found that mask mandates generally decreased the death ratio in most counties, and this change correlated with socio-economic conditions, achieving a classification accuracy of around 90%.
The recent outbreak of the COVID-19 led to the death of millions of people worldwide. To stave off the spread of the virus, the authorities in the US employed different strategies, including the mask mandate order issued by the states' governors. In the current work, we defined a parameter called the average death ratio as the monthly average of the number of daily deaths to the monthly average number of daily cases. We utilized survey data to quantify people's abidance by the mask mandate order. Additionally, we implicitly addressed the extent to which people abide by the mask mandate order that may depend on some parameters like population, income, and education level. Using different machine learning classification algorithms, we investigated how the decrease or increase in death ratio for the counties in the US West Coast correlates with the input parameters. The results showed that for most counties there, the mask mandate order decreased the death ratio reflecting the effectiveness of this preventive measure on the West Coast. Additionally, the changes in the death ratio demonstrated a noticeable correlation with the socio-economic condition of each county. Moreover, the results showed a promising classification accuracy score as high as around 90%.