World Health Organization (WHO)
✔@WHO
When to use mask
• If you are healthy, you only need to wear a mask if you are taking care of a person with suspected #coronavirus infection.
• Wear a mask if you are coughing or sneezingMore http://bit.ly/2TcBG0Q #COVID19
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The kind of mask that requires a “fit-test” is called an N95 respirator. It should be worn tightly on a person’s face and is meant to protect the wearer by filtering out 95 percent of airborne particles, according to the CDC. The other kind, called a surgical mask, is loose-fitting and is mostly intended to protect the patient or outside world from the wearer’s respiratory emissions. It is not considered to provide respiratory protection for the wearer.
The only people who should be wearing masks are healthy people who are taking care of someone who is sick or sick people who are coughing or sneezing when they are in public, according to the World Health Organization.
“Americans get scared when they feel like they’ve lost control,” Adams said. But there are more effective ways to prevent transmission, such as washing your hands regularly, not touching your face or mouth and staying home from work or school when you are feeling sick.
The surgeon general made the remarks on “Fox & Friends” after a firm and frank tweet over the weekend.
“Seriously people- STOP BUYING MASKS!” the surgeon general’s account said on Feb. 29. “They are NOT effective in preventing the general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers can’t get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!”
U.S. Surgeon General
✔@Surgeon_General
Seriously people- STOP BUYING MASKS!
They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers can’t get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!
http://bit.ly/37Ay6CmCoronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a virus (more specifically, a coronavirus) identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China.
cdc.gov
A similar message was echoed over the weekend by Vice President Pence, who said that hoarding medical supplies can put health workers at risk.
“If people are going out and buying face masks, that’s not necessary,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said on “Fox News Sunday” with Chris Wallace. “In fact, we need those masks for the people who should be using them, which are health-care workers taking care of patients.”
Despite the abundant pleas to save the masks for medical workers, pharmacies and hardware stores across the country have sold out. CBS News reported last week that Amazon’s mask offerings had largely sold out, and people were trying to sell N95 respirators for inflated costs.
“There are severe strains on protective equipment around the world,” Michael J. Ryan, executive director of the health emergency program at the World Health Organization, said at a briefing last week. “Our primary concern is to ensure that our front-line health workers are protected and that they have the equipment they need to do their jobs.”
There are limits to how much a mask will prevent infection, he said.
“The most important thing everyone can do is wash your hands, keep your hands away from your face and observe very precise hygiene,” Ryan said.
In an interview with CNN, William Schaffner, a preventive medicine professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, said the impulse to buy and wear a mask comes down to psychology. “The coronavirus is coming, and we feel rather helpless,” Schaffner said. “By getting masks and wearing them, we move the locus of control somewhat to ourselves.”
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