[shinydevops]

As someone who lives in one of the areas in this study that instituted a mask mandate, I think the clearest explanation of the lower case rates preceding the mandates is the general willingness of the population to mask prior to the dates noted on the graph. Yes, the most recent mask mandates weren't instituted until July 26th, but, for whatever my anecdata is worth, masking use in the more urban areas was already substantially higher than it was in the areas without the mandates. There's also the small matter of the more populous areas having higher vaccination rates than the state's more rural areas.

To me, the story here is not the data itself; it's another example of elected officials hiding data that doesn't agree with their position. Is the headline the best interpretation of the data? Not at all. But it's one more data set showing that the areas that are most closely following relevant recommendations are seeing better outcomes than areas that aren't.