Your baggy mask isn’t going to cut it against Omicron, epidemiologist warns

As variant tilts the COVID landscape, everyone should be reaching for N95 respirators

After almost two years of living with a pandemic, you would think we’d all be mask experts by now.

But the COVID-19 landscape is changing rapidly, and the things we thought would protect us are suddenly in need of a serious rethink — including, and perhaps especially, masks.

Those cloth and blue surgical masks so many of us have been wearing? They’re unlikely to cut it against Omicron, says an expert.

We should all be upping our mask game immediately, warns epidemiology professor Dr. David Fisman of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

“To be honest, we should have been doing this for a while now,” Fisman said in an interview with Shift NB, noting “we’ve known for over a year” that COVID-19 spreads through aerosol.

“And that’s really important because that means people get infected by breathing in these tiny particles.”

Continue Reading: cbc.ca/news/canada

N95 Masks vs. KN95 Masks: Which Ones Work Best to Protect You Against Covid?

Vaccinations may be going up but don’t drop that mask just yet.

Researchers say an N95 mask is still the most effective form of protection as Delta variant and Omicron concerns linger.

Also sometimes referred to as N95 respirators, these masks are not to be confused with KN95 masks, which have a similar name, but are held to entirely different standards. Once reserved for construction, medical or lab jobs, the best N95 masks are now available to the public, with a number of companies pivoting to manufacturing and selling N95 masks for sale online.

Continue reading: rollingstone.com/product-recommendations

With Omicron cases surging, it’s time to ditch the cloth mask, experts say

‘As long as you’ve got something covering your face anyway, why not make sure that it’s something that will really provide you the best protection’

With Canada facing another wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, some experts are recommending that people upgrade their masks – ditching fashionable cloth masks in favour of an N95 or other high-grade mask that filters out smaller particles, or, at least, a well-fitting surgical mask.

At a bare minimum, the single-layer bandanas and clear plastic masks that rest on the chin and deflect your breath up and over need to go. Continue reading: nationalpost.com/health/with-omicron-cases-surging