Masks: what the experts say. Or said

Presented without comment.


Seriously people – STOP BUYING MASKS! They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers can’t get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk! 

Tweet by US Surgeon General, 29 February


We do not recommend the use of face masks as a means of protection from coronavirus.

Public Health England, March


[Wearing a face-mask] is not a good idea and doesn’t help.
UK Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Jenny Harries, 11 March


It seems kind of intuitively obvious that if you put something – whether it’s a scarf or a mask – in front of your nose and mouth, that will filter out some of these viruses that are floating around out there. [If it were effective against respiratory illnesses like the flu and Covid-19] the CDC would have recommended it years ago. It doesn’t, because it makes science-based recommendations.

Dr William Schaffner, professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University, March


In terms of wearing a mask, our advice is clear: that wearing a mask if you don’t have an infection reduces the risk almost not at all. So we do not advise that. The only people we do sometimes use masks for are people who have got an infection and that is to help them to stop it spreading around.

UK Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty, 4 March


If you are healthy, you only need to wear a mask if you are taking care of a person with Covid-19.

World Health Organization, 2019 

(Read this page and laugh and weep alternately)



There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask. When you’re in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better and it might even block a droplet, but it’s not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is. And, often, there are unintended consequences – people keep fiddling with the mask and they keep touching their face.

Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), 8 March



Face masks do not provide protection from respiratory viruses such as Covid-19 and do not need to be worn by staff.

UK government, February



You might have noticed more people wearing medical face masks in the last few weeks whilst out and about. Don't worry if you haven't bought one. The masks are fairly ineffective for the average person. Even the more heavy-duty respiratory masks which tend to be used in hospitals aren't very effective for the average person. They need to be properly fitted to create a seal and then removed and disposed of correctly. In fact, you may even increase your risk of infection as it's likely you'll be touching your face more. 

Medical website Patient.info, 3 March 


Recommended further reading here 

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