There may be more effective interventions to control the spread of the CCP virus in the United States and elsewhere than government-ordered mask mandates, the authors of a new study say. The 25 U.S. counties with the highest number of officially reported cases of CCP virus, which causes the disease COVID-19, have rigorous mask mandates in place, as do 97 of the top 100, according to the study by the Heritage Foundation. “From October 1 through December 13, the U.S. saw an increase of 8.8 million confirmed COVID-19 cases,” the conservative foundation’s Center for Data Analysis (CDA) reported in a study made public on Dec. 28. “Of the 25 counties with the highest new case totals, all 25 had a mask mandate, and all but one implemented their directive prior to October; 21 of the 25 counties implemented mandates prior to August,” the CDA study said. “Of the 100 counties …