GOLDMAN SACHS WEIGHS IN ON FACE MASKS

Wearing a face mask during the pandemic saves lives. And it may save the economy, too, according to Goldman Sachs as reported by KCRA 3 News.

On Monday night, the investment bank released an extensive analysis that makes the economic and medical case for a national mask mandate.

By studying the link between coronavirus infections and mask mandates in U.S. states and overseas, the Wall Street bank estimated a national mandate could cut the daily growth rate of confirmed cases by one percentage point to just 0.6%.

That, in turn, could prevent the need for dreaded lockdowns that would wipe out 5% from U.S. GDP, the report said. That's the equivalent of about $1 trillion. "We find that face masks are associated with significantly better coronavirus outcomes," Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman Sachs, wrote in in the report.

In April, the federal government issued a "recommendation" to wear masks in public. However, unlike such countries as Germany, India, Italy, the United Kingdom and Mexico, there is no nationwide requirement to do so in the United States.