The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its mask recommendation on Friday. The CDC advised Americans to “wear the most protective mask they can find,” but did not call for N95 masks nationwide.
CDC stated on its updated website that people can choose high protective masks such as N95 and KN95. “We advise Americans to wear the most protective masks they can find, that fit their face and that they can use for a long time,” the statement said.
“Any mask is better than no mask at all”
The CDC stated that masks are an important public health tool and prevent the spread of Covid-19, saying that wearing any mask is better than not wearing any at all.
“The updated recommendations reflect scientific data on masks and what we’ve learned over the past two years,” the CDC said.
The CDC noted that all masks provide some level of protection, but N95 and KN95 type masks provide the highest protection if they fit snugly to the face.
N95 and KN95 provide the highest protection
In the last days when Covid-19 cases peaked in the USA, Americans have questioned which masks provide better protection.
Correctly fitted N95 masks trap 95% of airborne particles and prevent the passage of particles larger than 0.3 microns.
The USA announced 1 million 350 thousand new cases of Covid-19 on Monday, making it the country with the highest number of cases in a day. The Omicron variant now accounts for 98.3 percent of new cases, according to the CDC.
Masks continue to cause polarization in the US. Democratic President Joe Biden urged citizens to wear masks this week, noting that one-third of Americans said they never wore masks. Most Republican-leaning states do not require masks. Some states controlled by Democrats, such as California, have recently brought back the mask requirement indoors.
Senator Bernie Senders reintroduced the “Mask for All” bill to Congress on Wednesday. The bill includes sending 3 N95 masks to everyone.
At the end of July, the CDC changed its mask recommendation and recommended that fully vaccinated Americans wear masks in public places in areas where Covid-19 is spreading rapidly. According to the CDC, 99.5 percent of counties in the U.S. are currently highly contagious and the mask recommendation applies to all of them.
In May, the CDC said that as the pandemic began to decline, fully vaccinated people could remove their masks.