Is it okay to keep re-wearing your N95 mask?
Experts advise people to wear stronger masks to protect from the Coronavirus as the omicron variant spreads throughout the country.
President Joe Biden is planning to distribute high-quality masks to Americans for free.
Biden states that he knows “the mask is not always affordable or convenient to get.” You can read what he has to say about it here.
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N95 masks and how they work
N95 and KN95 have surged in popularity because they have been found to be better at stopping COVID from entering our bodies and getting us sick.
These masks, however, are different than cloth masks. This may leave many of us with questions about proper use.
Virginia Tech’s Linsey Marr, a professor of civil and environmental engineering told CNN that she wears hers for a week.
She added that many people have been saying the mask good for about 40 hours of coverage, which she agrees with.
Marr claims that the mask is “going to get gross from your face or the straps will get too loose or maybe break before you’re going to lose filtration ability.”
Dr. Joe Gastaldo, an infectious disease expert at Ohio Health reminds us that the concern of wearing masks in public is getting particles or the virus on it.
He says “if you store it in a dry bag, you are essentially sanitizing again over a period of time.”
The chief medical officer at VeryWell Health, Dr. Jessica Shepherd, said “It’s not the bag that’s doing the magic trick, it’s actually the process of keeping the mask away from decontaminating someone else or a surface, and also keeping a dry environment in order for the virus to not spread or stay on the mask.”
Overall, high-quality masks are important to stop the spread of COVID-19. Soon more people begin to use the N95 and KN95 masks to stay safe.
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