Abraar Karan, MD, has been treating COVID-19 patients for 10 months. In that time, he hasn’t gotten the virus, and he credits his N95 mask for protecting him.

“I’ve seen more COVID patients than I can count since March, and I get tested regularly, and I’ve not tested positive. I want others to have that kind of protection, too,” says Karan, an internal medicine doctor at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

The issue is as relevant today as it was a year ago when the first cases of the coronavirus were identified in the United States. A study released in The Lancet found that a 10% increase in mask-wearing makes it 3 times as likely that the coronavirus spread slows.

Separately, 13 scientists, including several who advised President Joe Biden on the pandemic during the transition, called on the administration to acknowledge that the virus is more airborne than previously thought, especially with the rise of more contagious variants. The highly effective masks filter out about 95% of all small particles.

In the letter sent Monday, the group of scientists outlined the evidence of airborne spread of the virus and pointed to other countries such as Germany and France that have mandated higher quality masks for workers and recommended enhanced indoor ventilation. They said the current guidance from the CDC and other agencies is “out of date” and needs to be urgently updated due to the threat of new, more infectious variants.

Read the rest of the WebMD article here.