Amazon, Facebook and Google have continued the banned sale of N95 respirator masks on their platforms, deepening the national divide on how Americans should protect themselves from COVID-19.

A year into the pandemic with over 515,000 deaths in the United States, guidance on mask use is at best confusing, and at worst, contradictory.

Some State governments are also contributing to the inconsistency by lifting some COVID-19 restrictions. On Wednesday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed an executive order lifting the statewide mask mandate. A move public health experts have strongly disagreed with.

At the same time, the federal government, and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) still recommend that N95 masks be reserved for health care personnel.

A growing number of European nations, and public health experts don't agree. Germany, France, and Austria have all mandated all it's citizens to wear medical-grade FFP2 masks (Europe's N95 equivalent) in public, such as the workplace, shops, restaurants, and public transit

Domestically, Harvard Health Professor Joseph G. Allen recommended in the Washington Post that all Americans wear N95s.

Since April, 2020 Amazon, Facebook and Google have all independently banned, or severely restricted the sale of N95 masks.

But, at this point everyone should be wearing N95 masks. To read the rest of this SFGATE article click here.