i dunno one saw a much larger drop in cases during the period when the mask mandate was in effect
North Dakota deaths in the two months after the mandate were 468 vs 832 in South Dakota. 44% less. That's massive. Yuge even. Before the mandate, deaths were virtually identical in the two Dakotas.
This is precisely the kind of information that a dispassionate observer would try to use to establish the efficacy of a particular intervention.
Spread on its face has nothing to do with deaths.