The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other health officials are considering a 180 degree change in earlier advice urging people with novel coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms not to wear masks in public based on data suggesting that people can contract the virus with no symptoms and remain unaware that they are contagious, Assistant Secretary of Health Brett Giroir said in an interview on Tuesday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 31st March, 2020) The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other health officials are considering a 180 degree change in earlier advice urging people with novel coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms not to wear masks in public based on data suggesting that people can contract the virus with no symptoms and remain unaware that they are contagious, Assistant Secretary of Health Brett Giroir said in an interview on Tuesday.
"We know many people who have COVID-19 are completely asymptomatic. But even though they're asymptomatic there is potential that they can spread it," Giroir told Fox news. "If you are spreading it asymptomatically and you are wearing a mask, it could be effective in keeping you from spreading it to someone else."
New data, Giroir added, poses an entirely different question than the basis of earlier advice, based on data indicating masks do not protect people from the virus.
"The new information that's coming out is what I know experts like Dr. Fauci and Dr. Redfield and all of us together are sort of looking at," Giroir said.
Robert Redfield is director of the CDC and Anthony Fauci leads the US Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health.
Data from more than 700 people who contracted the virus during nearly a month of quarantine on the Diamond Princess cruise ship showed that between 17 percent and 18 percent of those infected showed no symptoms, were not aware they had the virus, but could spread the disease.
