“If we were all covered for the next four, six, eight and 12 weeks across the country, this transmission of the virus would stop,” said Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But President Donald Trump said he will not consider a federal face mask mandate, citing outdated statements made several months ago.
“Dr. Fauci said not to wear a mask. Our surgeon-general, an excellent guy, said not to wear a mask. Everyone was saying not to wear a mask,” Trump told Fox News’s Chris Wallace in an interview that came out on Sunday air.
“Suddenly everyone has to wear a mask. And as you know, masks also cause problems. That said, I believe in masks. I think masks are good.”
Admittedly, in February and March, health officials like Dr. Anthony Fauci and the United States Surgeon General, Dr. Jerome Adams, advised the general public not to wear face masks.
But for the past few months, Fauci, Adams, the CDC and the World Health Organization have agreed that wearing face masks is critical to stopping the spread of the coronavirus. This is because doctors and scientists now know much more about how easily the virus spreads:
– It is easy to spread this virus simply by talking or breathing.
– This coronavirus is highly contagious. With no mitigation efforts such as orders to stay home, each person with the coronavirus infects an average of two to three others. That makes it twice as contagious as the flu.
– It is easy to spread the coronavirus without any symptoms, either from asymptomatic carriers or pre-symptomatic carriers.
– This virus has a long incubation period, up to 14 days, which provides ample opportunity for people to infect others before they realize they are infected.
– Carriers can be more contagious in the 48 hours before symptoms develop, making transmission even more blind.
In other words, not only people who are sneezing and coughing can transmit the coronavirus. Often, people look completely normal and do not have a fever. And that could include you.
“The cloth face liners are meant to protect others if the user is unknowingly infected but has no symptoms,” the CDC said.
He said everyone “should wear a cloth cover when they have to go out in public, for example, to the grocery store or to pick up other necessities.”
But the benefits go both ways. “The cloth face coating can protect them. The cloth face coating can protect it,” the CDC said.
If 95% of Americans wore face masks in public, it could prevent 33,000 deaths by Oct. 1, according to the University of Washington Institute for Health Assessment and Measurement.
Why did health officials tell us not to wear masks earlier?
At the beginning of this pandemic, scientists did not know how easily this virus spreads among people without symptoms or how long infectious particles can remain in the air.
There was also a shortage of N95 respirators and face masks among healthcare workers who were quickly overwhelmed with Covid-19 patients. Some medical workers ended up using plastic covers for office reports or other ordinary items like makeshift face masks, often of inferior quality, while working closely with Covid-19 patients.
In March, both the World Health Organization and the CDC said that healthy members of the general public should not wear face masks. instead it should be reserved for those who are sick or care for the sick.
Adams posted a tweet on February 29 urging people not to buy skins.
But in early April, both the CDC and Adams reversed their guidance after doctors learned more about how easily the coronavirus spreads without symptoms. They even created a video that shows how to make a mask with just a T-shirt and rubber bands, without the need to sew.
The WHO in June also reversed its guidance. The global health agency now says countries should urge the public to wear cloth masks where there is widespread transmission of the virus and where physical distancing is difficult.
Track the virus in your state and across the U.S.
What are the doctors saying about the masks now?
“People need to know that wearing masks can reduce virus transmission by as much as 50%, and those who refuse are putting their lives, families, friends and communities at risk,” said Dr. Christopher Murray, director from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
There are only a few groups of people who should not wear cloth masks, including children under the age of 2 and people who have respiratory problems, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, strongly urges the public to wear face masks, especially now that states have reopened and more people are in public.
“Plan A: Don’t go into the crowd. Plan B: If you do, be sure to wear a mask,” said Fauci.
As for the idea that wearing a mask could cause health problems, Fauci said that is not true.
“There has been no indication that putting on and wearing a mask for a considerable period of time has any deleterious effect on oxygen exchange or anything like that,” Fauci said. “No way.”
Which states have mask requirements?
More than two dozen states and the District of Columbia are mandated to wear cloth face masks in public.
“It is an incredibly simple, inexpensive intervention that is now becoming an effective intervention, both for individuals (and) for communities,” said Murray.
“There is no reason why each state should not do what other states are beginning to do, which is the use of the command mask.”
Other countries have had mask requirements across the country, including Germany, the Czech Republic, and Austria.
Do the mask requirements really help?
Some 230,000 to 450,000 cases of Covid-19 were prevented in states that enacted requirements for mask use between April 8 and May 15, researchers from the University of Iowa found.
The IHME projected a total of 179,106 deaths in the US from Covid-19 for October 1. But the number of expected deaths drops by 33,059, to 146,047, if 95% of Americans would wear masks in public, the researchers said.
What about my civil liberties?
Wearing a face mask will give you more freedom, not less, said the surgeon general.
“Some feel that facial linings infringe on their freedom of choice, but if we use them more, we will have MORE freedom to go out,” Adams, who was nominated by Trump, tweeted.
“Facial covers → less asymptomatic viral spread → more open places, and sooner! Exercise and promote your freedom by choosing to wear a facial cover!”
Murray agreed that one of the fastest ways to help control Covid-19 and help prevent a second wave of economic closings is to wear a mask.
“For almost every state we’ve seen, if we can get people to wear masks, we can not only save lives, but … we can also save the economy, because we can keep business going.”
Can I stop taking other precautions when wearing a mask?
No. It is still important to maintain social distance when possible and wash your hands frequently, especially since you can touch a contaminated surface (like the front of your mask) and then touch your face when the mask is off.
“Don’t have a false sense of security that this mask protects you exclusively from infection,” said Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force.
“There are other ways to get infected.”
CNN’s Maggie Fox, Nicky Robertson, Jacqueline Howard and Jen Christensen contributed to this report.
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