“They are very difficult to breathe in if you wear them properly,” Walensky said. “They are very difficult to tolerate if you wear them for a long time.”
The N95 masks are truly designed for first responders.
You’ve probably seen people wearing them. The five-layer masks come with a foam nose strip that covers a large area of your face.
Dr. Walensky, as well as Dr. Anthony Fauci, still say people should wear a mask, but say the general public shouldn’t have to wear the N95 masks because they feel uncomfortable and are hard to breathe.
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They fear that people will not want to wear masks at all after a bad experience wearing an N95.
“I’ve spent a fair amount of time in an N95 mask. They’re hard to tolerate every day,” Walensky said. “And when you really think about how well people will wear them, I worry that if we recommend or require people to wear an N95, they won’t always wear it.”
“The important thing is that everyone wears a mask,” said Fauci.
With the new COVID-19 variant, many people wonder whether you should wear two masks.
The CDC says you don’t have to, but again, they recommend that you wear at least one.
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