Should you wear a face mask during the coronavirus pandemic? NC experts weigh in
North Carolina health officials say they are rethinking their advice about wearing face masks to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Since the beginning of the outbreak, experts across the country have said face masks do little to protect against the disease. As hospitals began to see shortages of personal protective equipment, or PPE, calls intensified for saving masks for medical professionals.
But now some health officials, including the secretary of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, say face masks could become a good idea for everyone who goes out in public, not just doctors and nurses.
“I think they may be one element to add to things that we already know, are tried and true things that work to stop the spread of the virus — things we can do right now, like washing our hands,” Dr. Mandy Cohen of DHHS said Wednesday.
Masks probably can’t do much to protect the person who’s wearing them, experts agree. But people who are infected with the coronavirus, whether they know it or not, could be less likely to spread the disease if they are wearing a mask.
There is a “fair amount” of asymptomatic spread of coronavirus, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said on “Good Morning America.” He said his office wants the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to consider whether having more people wear masks could prevent such transmission.
On Wednesday, Adams acknowledged on Twitter that his office, the CDC and the World Health Organization all initially advised against the general public wearing masks based on the “best available science” at the time.
“But we are learning more about this disease every day,” he wrote.
Current CDC guidelines say only people who are sick or caring for someone who is sick should wear a mask. But Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the CDC, told NPR on Tuesday the possibility that masks could help everyone is being “aggressively reviewed.”
In North Carolina, the priority is to have enough protective gear for health care workers, Cohen told reporters Wednesday. But once supplies are more readily available, she said, officials should talk about whether broader use of masks could be beneficial.
“So when somebody wears a mask, it is actually them protecting the world from them,” she said. “It actually prevents you from having your germs get out into the world — which can be a good thing, but you have to couple that with washing your hands if you want to protect yourself.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, gave similar advice in an interview with CNN and said the White House coronavirus task force is discussing the idea of “broad, community-wide” use of face masks.
“Because if, in fact, a person who may or may not be infected wants to prevent infecting somebody else, the best way to do that is with a mask,” he told CNN. “Perhaps that’s the way to go.”
Dr. Tim Platts-MIlls, vice chairperson of research in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, stopped short of advising the public to wear face masks in an interview with The News & Observer but said doing so is “reasonable.”
He said he suggested his wife wear one to the grocery store when she asked.
“I’m not saying everyone needs to wear a mask to the grocery store,” he said. “I’m saying it’s reasonable to do it. We know the disease has an asymptomatic phase.”
In some cases, he said, people may have the virus and not know they’re sick.
“Those patients will look normal. They may be shedding virus,” Platts-Mills said. “It’s not unreasonable to wear a mask when you’re out in public.”
This story was originally published April 2, 2020 at 1:35 PM with the headline "Should you wear a face mask during the coronavirus pandemic? NC experts weigh in."
