In fact, the mask may eventually protect the wearer

Now, scientific growth suggests that you may also be protecting yourself by wearing a mask to prevent the spread of the virus. The ever-evolving knowledge of masks and their benefits is further evidence, as is the more widespread understanding of pandemics.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the first Scientific bulletin “The benefits of masking come from a combination of source control and personal protection of the mask wearer,” posted on the company’s website this week. Masks are neither completely selfless nor selfish — they help everyone.

John Brooks, Chief Medical Officer of CDC Coronavirus The Washington Post said it was urgent to explain this clearly, as widespread wear of face coverings could prevent the need for a national blockade.

He said the CDC has released this scientific overview to correct what the authorities saw as a lack of “a brief summary of strong scientific evidence demonstrating the benefits of masking.” This bulletin marks the beginning of a new push for agencies to enhance public messaging amid a surge in infections. Highest level i evern Many US regions. The agency is currently updating all communications about the mask to include new information.

Brooks said authorities want the public to understand that masks are “good for them,” as the CDC cannot impose obligations.

The new document attempts to make the carrots of compelling information publicly available. There is a “complementary and perhaps synergistic” relationship between controlling the source of infection for others and protecting oneself. In other words, the more people in the community wear masks, the greater the personal benefit.

The mask creates a barrier that prevents some of the droplets from flying outwards when someone breathes, speaks, or speaks. sing Or cough.Published research last week Experimental conditions have shown that a simple cloth mask blocks about three-quarters of the particles released by cough volunteers.

However, it was also a logical hypothesis for researchers to investigate whether masked particles could also be blocked. And laboratory tests over the last few months have shown that masks can filter the types of incoming particles that can carry the virus, Brooks said.

CDC officials added that personal protection of mask wearers is not absolute. “The real benefit is when we all do that, and that’s how we reduce the amount of covid-19 virus in our community,” Brooks said.

Nine months after the virus hit the United States, the CDC has confused scientific data with concerns about the availability of masks, raising criticism that the guidance on mask protection is not clear enough.

During the first wave of the pandemic, the investigation A majority of both Democrats and Republicans Democrats were more likely to wear masks, but they did. However, a few Americans were strongly skeptical.The opposite became so prominent in the summer that online shops sold fake “mask exemption” cards with stolen labels. Justice Ministry image, Hundreds.

By midsummer, Republicans were encouraged Face cover.. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Said in late June that wearing a mask was “the most important thing you could do” until the vaccine was available.

However, President Trump rarely insisted that Americans wear them. He often made masks an option, once misleadingly “Double-edged swordBecause people can touch the fabric and then the face.

There were few images of the president covering his face until he tweeted a photo of himself wearing a mask in July.

“Overall, this seems like a win from a messaging perspective that appeals to Republicans,” he said. Catherine White, A consumer behavior expert at the University of British Columbia.She said this was because of the strong conservatives Motivation By personal responsibility to take care of yourself.

Brooks, who oversaw the publication of the new newsletter, said the language had undergone a lengthy investigation to ensure that consensus was reached on the best evidence. In this case, laboratory, epidemiological and population-based studies all showed “very substantial benefits” of wearing masks, he said.

During the pandemic, an evolution of scientific thinking about masks took place in the United States. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease expert at the University of California, San Francisco, said science “has a lot of threads, multiple layers, and uses” electrostatic filtration “like a surgical mask.” Said suggesting that it would provide.

“A message that informs the general public that Masks are protecting you and others convinces skeptics that Masks are important in delaying the spread and illness from covid-19 in public. It will be more powerful on, “Gandhi said.

It is not very clear whether masks can reduce the severity of the disease (by potentially blocking some, but not all, incoming viral particles). On September 8, Gandhi and her UCSF colleague George Rutherford suggested that the amount of virus that people are exposed to could affect the severity of the disease. Scientists have said that a face cover filters out enough droplets, which can lead to asymptomatic or mild illness in some cases, and to some degree of immunity.

On October 23, a group of other prominent experts, such as Angelara Mussen of Columbia University and Saskia Popesque of George Mason University, wrote to the editors that science was preliminary and masked. He argued that it was only a hypothesis that a person inhaled a small amount. Of the virus.

CDC was not working on this theory Breaking news has been released this week. The agency emphasized that this update did not reflect changes in the agency’s recommendations for wearing masks.

“Our guidance is still the same,” Brooks said. “This is more data to back it up and emphasizes that there is personal protection that we want people to know about.”