It has been advised by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that people cover their faces when they go out in public. Some bigger cities, including Los Angeles, are making this obligatory, and if they can't get their hands on masks in stores, many around the nation are busy whipping up DIY cloth face masks.
But medical practitioners want you to know that wearing any form of face protection is not a reason to forgo social distancing mandates, whether store-bought or handmade.
Wearing a face mask is better than none at all, but it's still not a guarantee, particularly with face masks you make at home. Furthermore, masks do not shield our eyes, another potential way of transmitting the virus.
And according to a newly published study by the CDC, it turns out that most everyone infected with COVID-19 "always" wore masks. The study found 74.2% reported wearing masks "always" while 14.5% worse masks "often."
So, don't assume the masks are a cure-all. However, as a complement to other safe actions you take, they will serve a purpose. Nevertheless, the CDC still recommends masks, saying cloth face coverings help deter the transmission of the virus to others.
Early in the coronavirus epidemic, advice from the World Health Organization and the CDC suggested that it was not necessary to wear a face mask unless you were infected, when it stopped you from transmitting germs or the virus to other individuals.
There's some truth to that even if you do not feel sick. Experts also learned that certain COVID-19 affected individuals are asymptomatic, with some studies also indicating that signs could not be apparent in up to 50% of people with coronavirus.
It's been proposed that at this stage, we should act like we have coronavirus already. You are allowing people to remain healthy from anything you might be bringing by covering your face in public. So it is more to do with their defense than with your own.
You need to maintain social distance if you want to keep yourself and your community as coronavirus-free as possible. The essential gap you need to keep away from others is not replaced by face masks or any other security measures.
The bottom line is, a mask may help reduce the virus's spread, but it doesn't make you completely safe. The only way we can actually delay the spread of the infection right now is social distancing, along with other safety precautions.
