Masking mandates have been relaxed throughout the country in recent weeks, with the decision to wear a mask increasingly becoming up to the individual to decide.
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Everything continues to change as the path of the virus fluctuates, leaving many confused as to when it's safe to forego masking and when it isn’t.
"At the end of the day what it really comes down to, from my perspective, is risk-benefit-analysis," said Dr. Thomas Murray, Associate professor in pediatrics and infectious diseases at the Yale School of Medicine, and Associate Medical Director of Infection Prevention at the Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital on KCBS Radio's "Ask an Expert" on Monday.
"What is the risk if you choose not to wear a mask, and what are some of the things you can do to try to mitigate that risk," he told Holly Quan and Jason Brooks.
The safety of not wearing a mask in some public places, like eating indoors at a restaurant, depends on a variety of factors, such as being selective about who you're eating out with.
"Usually it's people that I live with, so they're not people that are going to put me at high risk," said Murray.
Eating outside is of course, preferable, but if not, eating inside safely and with people you know, who aren’t symptomatic, can be reasonably safe.
"Anything outside is going to be safer than inside," he said. But again, it depends on certain factors.
Like at a sports game, for instance. If it's outside, that's good, but "if the person right next to you for 2.5 hours has COVID-19 and if they’re screaming at the umpire, that’s probably going to be a little high risk," said Murray.
It's better to be spread out if you're outside, like at a concert with lawn seating.
As for airplanes, which have their own method of filtering air, masks are still most likely a good idea, he said. "You don’t know what the people immediately around you are doing."
When traveling with a child or a person who is unvaccinated or high risk for infection, the best thing to do is to "cocoon" them on the plane, by putting people around that person that are less likely to get sick.
"Your own personal health and those around you matter, a lot, when I think about risk assessment," said Murray.
If you're young and healthy, your level of risk is much lower than that of someone who is older and has other health issues, he said.
As for the masks themselves, the main thing is that they're comfortable to wear for a long period of time. In terms of effectiveness, the N-95 mask is the one specifically designed to filter out the particles being breathed in by the wearer.
Ideally, the N-95 would be fitted properly for the wearer's face. The next best thing would be a surgical mask.
The longevity of a mask can depend on how the mask is used, said Murray. If it gets soiled or wet, it needs to be thrown out.
Ultimately going forward, masking is a "personal choice," he said. "Many people who continue to choose to wear masks may have underlying health conditions or may have something specific that the vaccine doesn't work for them and that it really is a life-and-death decision for a subset of people out there."
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