Public health officials are suggesting double masking as a way to increase the level of protection from the coronavirus and its multiple, more contagious variants.
On Inauguration Day, transportation secretary nominee Pete Buttigieg and his husband, Chasten Buttigieg, took a selfie double masking, and inaugural poet Amanda Gorman wore a surgical mask beneath her Prada version. A 2020 study found surgical masks were about 50% effective at protecting the wearer from other people's aerosols and between 60% and 70% effective at protecting others.
"For maximal protection," Marr and Gandhi suggested the public could"wear a cloth mask tightly on top of a surgical mask where the surgical mask acts as a filter and the cloth mask provides an additional layer of filtration while improving the fit." "Consider upgrading from a cloth mask to a surgical mask, or from a surgical mask to an N95/KN95/equivalent if available. Better masks may help reduce risk from more-contagious strains," former US Centers for Disease and Control director Dr. Tom Friedan tweeted Monday.
"They're very hard to breathe in when you wear them properly," Walensky said."They're very hard to tolerate when you wear them for long periods of time."Whatever mask you wear, be sure to do so properly including while double masking. No uncovered noses are allowed. Both masks should go over the bridge of the nose, below the chin and be flush on the face, resting along the skin, experts say.
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