How long we will have to wear a face mask?
7th July: As the coronavirus pandemic spikes across the world, the question which is on everyone’s mind comes is how long do we have to wear a face mask?
It is evident that wearing a face mask and maintaining social distance can make or break any efforts to control the outbreak of the virus. But when can the risk be low enough to go back to our normal lives?
According to health experts, we’ll likely still have to wear face masks for a long time to come. In fact, a doctor from Johns Hopkins University predicts we could be wearing face masks for several years—yes, even if we have a vaccine.
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While many are assuming for a quick return to pre-pandemic life, recent coronavirus surges have shown that the mask recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) might be around in some capacity even after a vaccine is developed.
“I think that mask-wearing and some degree of social distancing, we will be living with—hopefully living with happily—for several years,” Eric Toner, MD, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and a world leader in pandemic preparedness, told CNET.
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As mentioned in Best Life, Toner said that following mask-wearing guidelines today is one of the only ways we can be sure we won’t be donning face coverings for even longer. “If we cover our faces, and both you and anyone you’re interacting with are wearing a mask, the risk of transmission goes way down,” he said.
According to the health experts, the vaccine for COVID-19 will not be discovered until 2022, and even then, doctors believe that patients will be requiring more than one dose, which is why wearing masks will have to be continued for years.
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Some doctors even said that we will have to wear a mask for the foreseeable future or until we achieve herd immunity. Herd immunity occurs when the majority of a population becomes immune to a virus through vaccination or contracting and recovering from said illness.
Unfortunately, herd immunity seems like it’s moving further away recently. “Immunity to this thing looks rather fragile—it looks like some people might have antibodies for a few months and then it might wane, so it’s not looking like a safe bet,” Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College London, told CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe on July 6.
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