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Pssst... That face mask isn't a force field against the coronavirus - CNET
Jun 01, 2020 1 min, 59 secs

My local Starbucks is happy to see me, it says, as long as I wear a face mask.

It also said that if you're not wearing a face mask, one would be issued to you.

In my county, wearing a face covering in any building is now required by order.

And even as the US scoots past its grimmest milestone yet -- 100,000 people confirmed dead from COVID-19 -- I can't help but feel that a false sense of security has taken hold around me, a seeming belief that wearing a face covering might keep someone from getting sick.

And another man a few feet away whose cloth mask covered his mouth only, his nostrils jutting out like binoculars.

The practice of wearing a nonmedical mask in the US as a guard against the coronavirus began before the official recommendation issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A grassroots effort to do something coincided with a growing desperation within the medical community over the severe shortage of medical-grade masks like N95 and surgical masks.

Where I live, that means wearing a face mask.

Here's what we know about nonmedical face masks.

They work better when they conform to your face without gaps, but cloth coverings aren't designed to fit your face the same way that a medical-grade mask like an N95 can, and obviously the masks you make at home or buy from vendors online aren't certified by an agency the way N95s are. .

Most importantly, wearing a nonmedical face mask is no guarantee that you won't acquire or transmit the virus.

Look, I don't love wearing face masks, either, but I also don't want to get sick -- or unknowingly pass it along.

Months ago, when I first wrote about the topic that cloth face masks aren't a silver bullet against getting the coronavirus (without a vaccine, there is no silver bullet), some people became angry and upset, including people I know and respect.

Another friend who works in healthcare and was sick with the virus, who appreciated the distinction being made between N95, surgical masks (PDF) and cloth masks.

A nonmedical face mask may not keep me from acquiring or transmitting illness, but if it helps keep me aware that the coronavirus is an ongoing threat -- even when the sun is shining and I long to return to "normal" life -- I'm buying in

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