Wear a Mask. No, Don’t Wear a Mask. Wait: Yes, Wear a Mask.
When it comes to whether everyday citizens like you and me should cover our faces, experts are divided. Here’s why — and what to actually do.
The only thing moving faster than the novel coronavirus, it seems, is the guidance on who should be wearing face masks.
On February 29, which was somehow only a little over a month ago, the US Surgeon General Jerome Adams, MD, MPH, tweeted:
Despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimating (in 2006!) that in the event of a severe influenza pandemic, at least 1.5 billion medical masks would be needed by the healthcare sector and an additional 1.1 billion would be needed by the public [emphasis mine], the US was now facing a severe shortage: In early March, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) estimated that US healthcare workers would need 3.5 billion respirator masks to fight a full-blown coronavirus pandemic over the next year, only 1 percent of which was available in…
