Health experts are insisting that the CDC should implement permanent mask mandates even after the COVID-19 pandemic ends.
Despite many areas of the U.S. beginning to open up again and anecdotal evidence suggesting a significant drop in the number of people routinely wearing masks, some are loathe to go back to normal.
“We have seen benefits of masking that occur,” Health Director Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott told The Providence Journal.
“So there may be a new form of normalcy where masks don’t necessarily have to go away.”
His sentiments were echoed by Dr. Leonard A. Mermel, medical director of epidemiology and infection control at Rhode Island Hospital, who said making people wear masks all the time was worth it to stop the spread of other viruses aside from COVID-19.
“Within the Lifespan system we are seeing far fewer of all the respiratory viruses than we are used to seeing at this moment in the calendar year… So it’s impressive: the COVID preventative strategies are having an impact on other respiratory viruses, which just makes sense: they spread in a similar fashion,” said Mermel.
“It would not surprise me if that became a recommendation from the CDC,” he said.
“It’s a pretty low price to pay to try to reduce the risk to oneself and to particularly loved ones who may be at particular risk of these sorts of infections causing harm,” he added.
Other experts have argued that the impact of viruses will only be more severe in the long run if human immune systems are prevented from being tested by new infections, harming herd immunity.- READ MORE
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