Business Insider:
Editor’s Note – What could go wrong?
- The CDC is recommending — but not requiring — that people cover their faces if they have to go out in public as the coronavirus spreads across the US.
- There isn’t much good evidence that masks help prevent infection from spreading in a population, except when you put them on the people who are already sick.
- There are also risks associated with wearing a homemade mask: You might just be turning your scarf into a virus-catcher.
If you must go out, cover up, according to new recommendations from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on how to curb spread of the novel coronavirus.
The recommendations to wear cloth or fabric face masks announced by President Donald Trump on Friday come as emerging evidence suggests people can transmit the coronavirus to others before they even know they’ve been infected.
“In light of these studies, the CDC is advising the use of nonmedical cloth face covering as an additional voluntary public-health measure,” Trump said. “So it’s voluntary, you don’t have to do it … I don’t think I’m going to be doing it.”
