CDC says to wear face coverings in public. WHO says don’t bother. What’s going on?

Days after the Centers for Disease Control recommended wearing masks out in public during the coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organization announced there is no evidence supporting the idea that wearing a mask will prevent healthy people from getting COVID-19.

So, should you wear a mask in community spaces?

It depends on who you are, according to a guidance issued by the WHO on Monday. Originally, the WHO “held off from recommending people wear face masks in public,” The Guardian reported.

“There is currently no evidence that wearing a mask (whether medical or other types) by healthy persons in the wider community setting, including universal community masking, can prevent them from infection with respiratory viruses, including COVID-19,” the WHO said in a report.

Professor David Heymann, the WHO assistant director-general for Health Security and Environment, said unless people work in healthcare settings, masks are “only for the protection of others, not for the protection of oneself,” according to The Guardian. WHO’s new guidance holds that those who are sick can help prevent spreading COVID-19 by wearing a mask, but “the use of medical masks in the community may create a false sense of security,” KUTV reported.

That false sense of security may result in “neglect of other essential measures,” such as hand-washing and social distancing, WHO said. It also “may lead to touching the face under the masks and under the eyes,” and “take masks away from those in health care who need them most, especially when masks are in short supply,” according to the WHO guidance.

The WHO does recommend that people with symptoms wear masks in a community setting because the coronavirus is spread through droplets produced by coughing and sneezing, the guidance said. Both the WHO and the CDC acknowledge that people infected with coronavirus might not show symptoms for a period of time, but the WHO says since the virus is spread through droplets, there is little risk of a “pre-symptomatic” person spreading the virus by not wearing a mask.

President Donald Trump issued new federal guidance encouraging Americans to wear face masks when out in public, KUTV reported. The CDC recommended Friday that people use “cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain especially in areas of significant community-based transmission,” the agency’s website said.

“People think they are protected when they are not,” Heymann told The Guardian. “Healthcare workers, in addition to the masks, wear visors too, to protect the eyes.”

While the CDC recommended making masks out of fabric, considering a shortage in medical masks, healthcare experts argue that cloth masks won’t make a difference at all, according to The Guardian.

“Cloth masks and poor-quality surgical face masks will not filter fine respiratory droplets, and certainly not aerosols, which some are now claiming to be an infection risk,” William Keevil, a professor of environmental healthcare at the University of Southampton, told The Guardian. “The major question that needs to be addressed is: what about protecting the eyes, a known route of entry?”

The CDC’s website says the agency “will make additional recommendations as the evidence regarding appropriate public health measures continues to develop.”