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

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

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Of course, everyone is tired of using them. But, as studies have shown, and as Dr. Anthony Fauci has often pointed out, masks are the most effective way to protect you and others from the coronavirus infection that causes Covid-19, the disease.
“Masks are a two-way street. Masks protect you and me,” preventing the spread of droplets and aerosols that may contain the virus, says the United States’ Center for Disease Control and Prevention in its guidance on masks.

Just because vaccines are here, it doesn’t mean that Americans should let their guard down. In fact, Dr. Richard Besser, former acting director of the CDC, said it would be “incredibly risky”.

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

The more the virus has the opportunity to spread, the greater the risk of mutating and more variants appear, such as those that were first identified in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil.

“And if vaccines are not as effective against some of these variants, we can see the gains we are so excited about now, we can see those gains reversed in a very short period of time.”

At the beginning of the pandemic, we were instructed not to wear a mask and to reserve it for those who were sick or for health professionals. But that was before scientists understood how the virus was transmitted, and it was at a time when masks were lacking among healthcare professionals.

Now, some people are even recommending using two masks at the same time.

Here’s what you should know about masks.

This is where masks are needed

President Joe Biden asked everyone to wear a mask when in public and made it mandatory on federal properties. Masks are necessary for public transport and at airports and transit stations.

Most states and some local governments have some type of masking mandate in place, and most retailers require customers to use them in their stores.

It is important to note that children under 2 years old should not wear a mask, according to the CDC.

Now, more than a year after the start of the pandemic, Americans can soon obtain standards for the masks so we can know which masks work best.

ASTM International, an international technical standards organization, and the National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory are working on standards on filter efficiency, sizing and adjustment, cleaning and recommended period of use or reuse.

What kind of mask should you wear?

N95 masks are the gold standard for masks because they block 95% of large and small particles using an electrostatic filter.
If everyone wore N95 masks for four weeks in high-risk environments, “it would end the epidemic,” said Dr. Abraar Karan, an inmate at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, to CNN’s chief medical officer, Dr Sanjay Gupta.
Watch out for fake N95 masks – they have flooded the market and may not meet safety standards. Look for the NIOSH seal of approval from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
The global pandemic exit plan hits an obstacle
Some health experts are calling for a national implementation of N95 masks, but they are currently reserved for healthcare professionals, in part because of the lack of masks.
KN95 masks also offer good protection, but are not certified by the United States National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Some manufacturers of KN95 masks have received emergency use approval for use in healthcare environments 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 that you have multiple layers of potential protection for a single mask,” said CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Anderson Cooper and Sanjay Gupta of CNN.

In addition to their scarcity, N95 masks are “very difficult to tolerate when you wear them for long periods of time,” said Walensky.

“I worry that if we suggest or require people to use an N95, they will not be using them all the time. They are very difficult to breathe when you use them correctly, ”she said.

Should you wear two masks?

Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, recently wore two masks, one on top of the other. The CDC has not issued any guidance on duplication, but Fauci said it is because it does not yet have scientific data to prove its effectiveness.

“Can we make a general recommendation that has no scientific basis yet? No,” he said during a briefing at the White House. “But when science comes and tells us it is better or not, you will see a recommendation being made by the CDC.”

In the meantime, Fauci said, “there are many people who take the common sense approach. If you are talking about a physical barrier, and as the CDC recommends, you want at least two layers inside the mask as a physical barrier, and you feel that perhaps more as a physical barrier would be better. ”

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

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

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