By CNN staff | January 21, 2021 at 1:01 PM EST – Updated January 21 at 10:57 PM
(CNN) – If nearly everyone wore a mask in public, the spread of COVID-19-19 would be dramatically reduced, a new study says.
And with that, President Joe Biden is beginning his administration by asking everyone to use one and mandating its use where he can.
Before becoming the 46th president of the United States, Biden made his stance on masks clear.
“For god’s sake, wear a mask if not for yourself for your loved ones for your country,” he said.
In his first executive order, the president enacted the 100 Days Masking Challenge.
While a president cannot tell states or cities what to do, the federal mandate will require anyone on federal lands or in federal offices to wear a mask.
Know how to wear your face mask correctly
A recent study found that if everyone would wear a mask in public and continue health measures like social distancing and handwashing, the rate of coronavirus spread would essentially be reduced to zero.
The information appears in the January edition of the medical journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The study says public mask wearing is the most effective at reducing the spread of the virus when compliance is high.
“This research makes clear that even as vaccines are developed and new variants are being discovered, the power to protect ourselves remains in our hands,” according to the study’s coauthor Anne Rimoin with the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.
“Wearing a mask is one of the simplest, most effective, and cheapest ways to do exactly that.”
The study also suggests mask wearing mandates across the country could add $1 trillion to America’s gross domestic product, a measure of all goods and services produced in the United States.
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