Child care programs in the United States that instituted child-masking policies in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic were less likely to close in the following year, according to a new Yale study.
The study, published Jan. 27 in JAMA Network Open, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Medical Association, tracked 6,654 center-based and home-based child care professionals from all 50 states during a one-year period starting in the late spring of 2020.
Child care programs that required masking children 2 years and older early on in the pandemic (from May through June of 2020) saw a 13% reduction in program closure over the following year, according to the study, which was conducted by the Yale Children and Adults Research in Early Education Study Team. Researchers found that continued masking throughout the year was associated with a 14% reduction in program closure, while controlling for other mitigation measures such as social distancing and symptom screening.
