For safer shopping, check out a site like Project N95, a nonprofit that helps consumers find legitimate personal protective equipment. KN95s tend to be a bit more comfortable than N95s, but counterfeits continue to be a problem. But surgical masks tend to fit loosely, and a snug fit - with no gaps around nose, cheeks or chin - "really makes a big difference," says Marr, who has studied mask efficacy. The material in surgical masks also has an electrostatic charge.
"And the kind of encounter that you could have had with prior versions of the virus that would have left you uninfected, there's now a good chance you will get infected from it." Robert Wachter, chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. One person is infecting at least three others at a time on average, based on data from other countries. It spreads at least three times faster than delta. Omicron is so much more transmissible than coronavirus variants that have come before it. "Cloth masks are not going to cut it with omicron," says Linsey Marr, a researcher at Virginia Tech who studies how viruses transmit in the air. But given how contagious omicron is, experts say, it's seriously time to upgrade to an N95 or similar high-filtration respirator when you're in public indoor spaces. With another coronavirus variant racing across the U.S., once again health authorities are urging people to mask up indoors.
With the spread of omicron, experts say to wear high-filtration respirators in public indoor spaces for the best protection. A firefighter tests the seal on his N95 mask at the start of his shift in Glen Burnie, Md.
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