If you’re using single-layer cloth masks as your sole source of protection against the omicron variant of COVID-19, a new report by the Wall Street Journal says that may not be enough to keep you from contracting the much more infectious version of the virus.
While cloth masks are helpful against larger droplets of bodily fluid that can carry COVID-19 into your respiratory system and are considered by many to be more comfortable, they do not protect against the smaller airborne, aerosol-like particles that carry the sickness.
For that reason, the Mayo Clinic has now required every patient and visitor within its walls to wear N95, KN95 or surgical masks. Anyone arriving with a cloth mask will be given one of the stronger masks to wear on top of it or in place of it.
At this point, the CDC has not made the Mayo Clinic standard for anyone other than healthcare workers and is still advising the general public to wear multi-layered cloth masks. The CDC advises that masks should fit “snugly” against the side of the wearer’s face and should cover both the nose and mouth.
They also recommend masks that boast a nose wire that can be contoured to the curve of the face and help reduce or eliminate any gaps at the top edge of the mask.
“If everyone is just wearing a cloth mask or just a surgical mask, it won’t make any difference,” Dr. Monica Gandhi of the University of California – San Francisco told Fox News regarding the varying messages on mask usage. “If you really want no exposure, you have to wear the right type of mask.”
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