evidence: While many states have already lifted their statewide mask mandates, many mandates remain in place. But the science is mixed about masks effectiveness in schools — especially for kids. [...] GODOY: He says to get really strong evidence that masking mandates slow transmission in schools, you'd need to have a large number of schools, you'd have to control for those other factors I mentioned, plus lots of other things. He says the bottom line is that the totality of evidence suggests high-quality masks do help slow transmission in schools, but we may never be able to pin down exactly how much they help. [...] MONICA GANDHI: We need to think about releasing mask mandates on what matters the most, which is our hospitals having good capacity and a vaccination rate in the community.