Covid-19 and Masks

While my area of expertise is eye care, there is, of course, a lot of talk about Covid-19 going on these days. One of the specific recommendations that I have heard about that doesn’t seem to be affecting the behavior of our communities is the use of masks. The basic idea is that people who are wearing typical surgical masks in public settings are not getting much protection, and this is a misuse of surgical masks. We should be placing surgical masks on patients with symptoms, not on the asymptomatic people walking around in the community. Unfortunately, it still seems that plenty of asymptomatic people are using masks as a “precaution.” So if you are feeling well and out in the community, don’t try to obtain a mask, because it isn’t going to make much of a difference.

Update 03/22/20: While I still think that asymptomatic patients should try to avoid crowds and therefore do not need to be wearing masks in the community in uncrowded locations, it is unclear to me what the role of masks should be when crowding becomes unavoidable, especially for high-risk people.