What you need to know about face masks as protection against Covid-19

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Of course everyone is tired of wearing them. But as studies have shown, and as Dr. Anthony Fauci has often pointed out, masks are the most effective way to protect yourself and others from being infected with the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 disease.
“Masks are a two-way street. Masks protect you and me” by preventing the spread of droplets and aerosols that may contain the virus, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says in their mask guidelines.

Just because vaccines are here doesn’t mean Americans have to drop their guard. Dr. Richard Besser, former CDC acting director, even said that would be “incredibly risky.”

“It is absolutely essential that we continue to take steps beyond vaccination to keep this under control,” Besser said.

The more the virus is allowed to spread, the more likely it will mutate and more variants will appear, as well as those first identified in the UK, South Africa and Brazil.

“And if the vaccines aren’t as effective against some of these variants, then we could see the benefits that we’re so excited about right now, we could see them reversed in a very short time.”

At the beginning of the pandemic, we were told not to wear a mask and to reserve it for people who were sick or for health workers. But that was before scientists understood how the virus was transmitted, and it was at a time when there was a shortage of masks among health workers.

Now some people even recommend wearing two masks at the same time.

Here’s what you should know about masks.

Masks are required here

President Joe Biden has called on everyone to wear a mask when in public, and he has made it mandatory on federal property. Masks are required in public transport, airports and transit stations.

Most states and some local governments have some sort of mask mandate, and most retailers require shoppers to wear these in their stores.

It’s important to note that children under age 2 should not wear a mask, according to the CDC.

Now, more than a year after the pandemic, Americans may soon be getting standards for masks, so we’ll know which masks work best.

ASTM International, an international technical standards organization, and the National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory are working on standards for filter efficiency, size and fit, cleaning and recommended use or reuse periods.

What type of mask should you wear?

N95 masks are the gold standard for masks because they block 95% of the large and small particles with the help of an electrostatic filter.
If everyone wore N95 masks in high-risk environments for four weeks, “that would stop the epidemic,” Dr. Abraar Karan, an internal medicine physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
Beware of fake N95 masks – they have flooded the market and may not meet safety standards. Look for the NIOSH certification from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
The world's pandemic exit plan is running into a problem
Some health experts are calling for a nationwide rollout of N95 masks, but these are currently reserved for health professionals, partly due to a shortage of masks.
KN95 masks also provide good protection, but are not certified by the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. A few manufacturers of KN95 masks have received emergency use approval for healthcare use in the United States.

Surgical masks have three layers and generally offer more protection than cloth masks.

Fabric masks have the advantage of being washable and reusable. Make sure the mask has at least two layers – the more layers the better.

“If you’re wearing a cloth mask, it should be a multi-layer mask so you have multiple layers of protection for a single mask,” said CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky to CNN’s Anderson Cooper and Sanjay Gupta.

Aside from their scarcity, N95 masks are “very difficult to tolerate when worn for long periods of time,” Walensky said.

“I’m afraid if we suggest or require people to wear an N95, they won’t always wear it. They’re very difficult to breathe in if you wear them properly,” she said.

Do you have to wear two masks?

Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, recently wore two masks on top of each other. The CDC has not issued guidelines on doubling, but Fauci said that’s because it doesn’t yet have scientific data to support its effectiveness.

“Can we make a blanket recommendation that has no scientific basis yet? No,” he said during a White House briefing. “But if science comes along and tells us it’s better or not, you’ll see a recommendation being made by the CDC.”

In the meantime, Fauci said, “There are a lot of people who are taking the common sense approach. When you’re talking about a physical barrier, and as the CDC recommends, you want at least two layers within the mask as a physical barrier, and you feel that maybe more of a physical barrier would be better. ”

The most important thing to know is that wearing a mask, a mask and keeping your distance from others will help get the country out of this pandemic.

“The important thing is that everyone wears a mask,” Fauci told Anderson and Gupta.

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