NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — To shave or not to shave? That is the question.
The pandemic beard is trending on social media, but should men really be growing facial hair amid the coronavirus outbreak?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s facial hair guidelines poster says a soul patch and side whiskers will not decrease the effectiveness of a respirator mask, but long stubble, full beards and an extended goatee can be harmful.
Dr. Amesh Adalia, an infectious disease specialist at John Hopkins Center for Health Security, says beards can also spread germs.
“It is definitely the case that if you have a beard and it's not groomed and you sneeze into your beard or cough into your beard and there’s mucus in there, you may then be able to pass that along to somebody else or contaminate yourself or contaminate your masks when you take it off and put on something else,” the doctor says.
Related
A recent study in the Journal of Hospital Infection found N95 masks did not fit properly on healthcare workers with facial hair.
Dr. Adalia says regular stubble is probably okay as long as the person is wearing a tight-fitting face covering when they go out.
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