Anti-Covid mandates have generally been seen as hurting business… but a new study shows that some of them, short of shutdowns, actually help the economy. The study from Washington University in St. Louis finds that mask mandates increase consumer spending by about five percent. Researchers say people apparently spend more because they feel safer and more confident. The researchers also looked at how the economy would have been impacted if the whole nation had opened up as some areas did over the summer. Their conclusion is that consumer spending would have recovered only about 10 percent of its losses…with a big impact in lives lost.
And finally… playing brain games before surgery may help recovery. A study from the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center finds that giving patients a game app and having them play it for 10 days before surgery helps avoid postoperative delirium. That’s a brain fog especially common in older patients, often leading to longer hospital stays and poorer outcomes. Researchers say people who played games for 10 hours on the app before surgery had a 61 percent lower delirium rate afterward, compared to controls.
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