I have counted the u.s covid-19 cases cases and deaths for the first week of April, and divided them by states requiring mask wearing and not requiring wearing masks. The mask wearing states had a death rate of 0.91% while the non mask wearing states had a death rate of 1.59%. The non mask wearing states had 244 deaths per day. This means we could have saved 244 (1.59-0,91)/1.59 = 103 lives per day as a nation if all were forced to wear a mask, everything else being equal (which of course it isn’t). (Look at Appendix 1 to see how your state is faring.)
Are there any better ways to save lives?
In March 2020 President Trump became a proponent of using HydroxyChloroQuine as a remedy for Covid-19. It was met with strong opposition from CDC and even scorn from his political opponents. CDC even published strong advice against using it to treat Covid-19, while still recommending its use to treat Lupus and rheumatoid patients with essentially no restrictions, including pregnant women and nursing mothers. After all, it had an over 50 year safety record as treatment for Malaria. Even Dr Fauci acknowledged its safety and efficacy as a cure for Coronaviruses as early as 2005, (see Appendix 2). Many countries are using HCQ as a first defense against COVID-19, and they experience on average less than half the death rate of nations that do not use HCQ as a first defense. To complicate matters, HCQ is prescribed to between 16 and 30% of all Covid cases in the U.S. As a guess with today’s 491 death’s per day, we could have saved more than 40%, about 200 lives a day, or twice as many lives as are saved by the mask mandate. The biggest problem for CDC is that HCQ is generic, cheap and easy to produce, so there is no profit in making a double blind study. For Trump opponents it was far more important to defeat Trump than to save a hunded thousand lives. ( see https://lenbilen.com/2020/09/06/u-s-a-corona-virus-death-rate-as-of-september-5-is-3-00-41-countries-have-higher-death-rates-15-countries-giving-hcqzincz-pac-to-covid-19-patients-as-soon-as-symptoms-occur-have-much-lower-death/ )
But there are other interesting cures for COVID-19, Ivermectin is fantastic. It has one problem, through.You can buy it at Tractor-supply, it is used as an antiparasitic agent for dogs and horses, and it is generic. However the worldwide interest is so big that at least 50 trials have been conducted and there is a 76% decrease in mortality. That means,using it properly would save nearly 400 lives per day.
Appendix 1
These are the U.S. states and territories with mask mandates:
State Cases Deaths Death rate Cases Deaths Death rate
Last seven days Total Since Pandemic started
Alabama 305 18 5.90% 517,452 10,652 2.06%
Kansas 183 8 4.37% 305,489 4,959 1.62%
California 2688 109 4.06% 3,685,570 59,884 1.62%
Kentucky 538 18 3.35% 429,841 6,184 1.44%
Arkansas 156 5 3.21% 331,505 5,660 1.71%
Nevada 309 8 2.59% 305,929 5,308 1.74%
New Mexico 200| 4 2.00% 192,989 3,963 2.05%
West Virginia 376 7 1.86% 144,820 2,735 1.89%
Guam 7,804 134 1.74%
Oregon 468 8 1.71% 168,795 2,439 1,44%
Virginia 1380 23 1.67% 631,083 10,436 1.65%
Louisiana 363 6 1.65% 447,655 10,185 2.28%
District of Columbia 116 1.4 1.21% 45,498 1,077 2.37%
Massachusetts 2142 25 1.17% 650,573 17,358 2.67%
Maryland 1311 15| 1.14% 421,823 8,410 1.99%
Puerto Rico 210,181 2,139| 1.04%
New York 7552 76 1.01% 1,968,112 51,120 2.60%
North Carolina 1526 15| 0.98% 924,810 12,212 1.32%
Indiana 994 9 0.91% 693452 13,099 1.89%
Washington 1007 9 0.89% 375,725 5,368 1.43%
Ohio 1900 17 0.89% 1,030,864 18,741 1.82%
U.S. Virgin Islands 2,945 26 0.88%
Wisconsin 733 6 0.82% 582,643 6,667 1.14%
Pennsylvania 4162 27 0.75% 1,063,979 25,440 2.39%
Utah 398 3 0.75% 388,426 2,139 0.55%
Illinois 2982 20 0.67% 1.269,196 23,740 1.87%
New Jersey 4166 27 0.65% 942,311 24,783 2.63%
Hawaii 97 0.6 0.62% 30,363 467 1.54%
Connecticut 1045 6 0.57% 319,779 7,940 2.48%
Michigan 7226 40 0.55% 804,031 17,450 2.17%
New Hampshire 394 2 0.51% 86,035 1,250 1.45%
Colorado 1481 7 0.47% 474,053 6,294 1.33%
Minnesota 1931 9 0.47% 535,182 6,990 1.31%
Vermont 164 0.7 0.43% 20,615 231 1.12%
Delaware 320 1.1 0.34% 97,042 1,567 1.61%
Maine 316 0.4 0.13%| 53,434 750 1.40%
American Samoa 0 0 0.00%
Total 48,929 447 0.91% 20,160,004 377,797 1,87%
These are the states and territories without mask mandates:
State Cases Deaths Death rate Cases Deaths Death rate
Last seven days Total Since Pandemic started
Montana 144 6 4.17% 105,526 1,489 1.41%
Georgia 1253 36 2.87% 1,068,199 19,305 1.81%
Mississippi 209 6 2.87% 306,611 7,077 2.31%
Texas 2,886 79 2.74% 2,817,742 49,124 1.74%
Iowa 562 13 2.31% 384,173 5,843 1.52%
Nebraska 274 6 2.19% 212,785 2,183 1.03%
Wyoming 59 0.9 1.53% 56,802 701 1.23%
Missouri 594 8 1.35% 581,164 9,196 1.58%
Arizona 628 8 1.27% 846,230 17,023 2.01%
N. Mariana Islands 159| 2 1.26%
South Carolina 1001 11 1.10% 559,597 9,237 1.65%
Idaho 278 3 1.08% 182,841 1,989 1.09%
Florida 5489 56 1.02% 2,096,747 33,844 1.61%
Tennessee 1094 10 0.91% 820,965 11,997 1.46%
South Dakota 244 0.9 0.37% 119,197 1,939 1.63%
North Dakota 154 0.3 0.19% 104,364 1,468 1.41%
Oklahoma 275 0 0.00% 441,906 6,669 1.51%
Alaska 172 0 0.00% 61,198 309 0.50%
Total 15,316 244 1.59% 10,766,206 179,393 1.67%
Appendix 2:
Dr Fauci also wrote about mask wearing during the Spanish Flu
Len Bilén's blog, a blog about faith, politics and the environment. 
I contracted a head cold while wearing a mask. So it is gonna stop WuFklu?
No, but during the Spanish Flu more people died from the ensuing pneumonia than from the original flu, thanks to the mask mandate.