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Melissa Harris-Perry: I'm Melissa Harris-Perry, and you're listening to The Takeaway. If you're anything like me, you've amassed quite the collection of facemasks over the past two years.
M, to the A, to the S, to the K
Put the mask on the face
Just to make your next day.
Melissa Harris-Perry: N95, medical-grade masks, cloth masks you name it, math probably got it. In light of the highly transmissible Omicron variant, it's become even more important that we mask up, but not all masks are equally effective. The CDC is currently considering updating its guidance on masking to encourage people to wear the more protective KN95 and N95 masks. For more on this, I spoke with Dr. Lisa Maragakis. Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Senior Director of Healthcare Epidemiology and Infection Prevention with John Hopkins health system. I asked Dr. Maragakis to remind us about her masks prevent COVID-19 from spreading.
Dr. Maragakis: Masks are a physical barrier that helps to contain respiratory droplets that can be expelled not only when you're coughing or sneezing, but also when you're just having a conversation with somebody, and particularly if you're speaking loudly or singing. That mask stops those respiratory droplets from carrying virus from one person to the next.
Melissa Harris-Perry: How important is it though, that even for folks who are vaccinated, that we continue wearing masks?
Dr. Maragakis: It is so important. Melissa, you raise some issues that are so important to talk about because I think confusion, and fatigue, and politicization of this issue have all made it extremely hard for us to make the right choices and continue over the long period of time wearing masks and doing the very simple things that help keep us safe. It is unfortunate, but we even had national guidance come out in May of this year saying that if you were vaccinated, you no longer had to wear a mask. There was a lot of optimism around that time that the pandemic was coming to an end, that rates were falling and that masks were known no longer necessary.
Many in infection prevention like myself, were very upset by that guidance at the time. It's certainly understandable that everyone was tired of wearing the masks, but I really look at infection prevention as a package of layers of protection that we can put together, including the vaccine, which is so incredibly helpful to prevent severe disease and death, but then the infection prevention measures like masking and washing your hands and some of the choices about indoor gatherings while the virus is still so prevalent.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Walk us through what kind of masks we should be wearing, and how we should be wearing them. If it really matters, what kind of mask we're wearing.
Dr. Maragakis: The good news is that many different kinds of masks can be effective. There are some features of masks that are important. You may have heard these at the beginning of the pandemic, but I think maybe messages have gotten a little bit muddled or forgotten. It is important that a mask have multiple layers that helps trap those respiratory droplets and viral particles and prevent them from being transmitted. If you have a mask that is multiple layers and well-fitting, it will be more effective. We've heard a lot of talk in recent days about cloth masks being worthless. I really beg to differ about that.
If they're well constructed, multiple layers, and well-fitting, these are very effective tools that we have. It's the easiest and most inexpensive way to really protect ourselves when we're going out into public places. A cloth mask is very good for most situations. You want to avoid masks that have exhalation valves. Those are those valves that make it easier to breathe, but unfortunately also easier for viral particles to get through, and avoiding things like single-layer material that might be found in a gator or any kind of mask that has holes in it or gaps around the side.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Should we wash our cloth masks and if we do, should we dry them or hang them on the line?
Dr. Maragakis: This is a step that is frequently skipped and I must admit I do so myself, but it is important to wash your mask. You can imagine that they do get dirty being so close to your mouth and nose all day. Washing a mask, you can either wash it in the machine or by hand and it really doesn't need to be any particular type of drying, but just making sure that you clean it and that you get it dry, either way on a line or in a dryer works.
Melissa Harris-Perry: What about the, let's call them high-quality but disposable masks. Should we wear them only once or can you wear those, Monday and Tuesday or maybe even all week?
Dr. Maragakis: If you're talking about the over-the-counter masks that look more like the medical masks, the rectangular pieces of accordion-folded layers of materials, sometimes they're blue, or green or white, these are also very effective. Medical grade masks have a degree of fluid resistance to them that is very helpful to us in health care, where you are in close proximity to patients and may encounter respiratory droplets directly onto your mask. Those can be helpful. Interestingly, the sides of those rectangles tend to gap even more than some of the well-made cloth masks. There are some strategies that can be used to tie the elastic bands or ties and tuck the sides in to help improve the fit.
Melissa Harris-Perry: This is, my last question is prompted by your point about the physical distancing. I think sometimes again, that 6 feet can feel like some sort of magical number, and as though if we're 6 feet away, that alone will protect us, but help us to understand what the distancing means and how protective it is for us.
Dr. Maragakis: You're so right. There's nothing magical around 6 feet. It really arose from studies of coughing and sneezing and trying to determine the distance that respiratory droplets with viral particles will travel before they fall to the floor. If you look at that literature, even that falls flat because powerful coughs and sneezes can propel respiratory droplets much further than 6 feet, so it's a rough guideline. We know that in many settings like schools, with the class sizes, even 6 feet is not possible at times.
Melissa Harris-Perry: I don't know I guess I have one more question. Is this ever going to be over? [chuckles] The vaccines made me so excited to be with people again, to teach my students in person again, and it feels like we're right back at the beginning.
Dr. Maragakis: So much of this is feeling oppressive and quite frankly depressing at times, but we will come out the other side of this. I have no doubt. Infectious disease and infection prevention persons like myself know that the winter is respiratory virus season and we have anticipated that we would have a surge we didn't know it would be this large or this transmissible, but here we are, and we will come out of the other side of it. We are so much better positioned now with the knowledge that we have, with the vaccines that we have.
I would encourage everyone to get vaccinated, get your booster, and to have some patience with these very basic measures like masking, washing hands, distancing, and making safer choices about our social interactions certainly over the next several months. I do see that we will have brighter days ahead.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Dr. Lisa Maragakis is the Senior Director of Healthcare Epidemiology and Infection Prevention with the Johns Hopkins health system. Dr. Maragakis, thanks for being here and for making me feel a little better.
Dr. Maragakis: Thanks for having me.
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