Should we all be wearing masks in public? CDC reportedly reconsidering guidance

People wearing face masks wait to cross a street in Beijing on March 31, 2020. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reportedly is considering its guidance on face mask use. Its current recommendation is that people who are well should not wear them in public. less People wearing face masks wait to cross a street in Beijing on March 31, 2020. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reportedly is considering its guidance on face mask use. Its current ... more Photo: Mark Schiefelbein, AP Photo: Mark Schiefelbein, AP Image 1 of / 50 Caption Close Should we all be wearing masks in public? CDC reportedly reconsidering guidance 1 / 50 Back to Gallery

Since the first days of coronavirus pandemic in the United States, the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that people not wear protective face masks while in public if they are well.

The surgeon general took to Twitter to urge people to stop buying face masks.

Those recommendations are now being re-evaluated, according to published reports.

Citing an anonymous federal official, the Washington Post reported Tuesday that the CDC is considering altering its official guidance for covering faces during the outbreak. The official stressed that no final decision had been made yet.

Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the recommendation of masks for all Americans is "under very active consideration,” according to ABC News.

There are good reasons people should wear masks — not the N95 masks desperately needed by health care workers, but simple nonmedical fabric face masks.

Evidence is growing that individuals with asymptomatic and presymptomatic infections can transmit the disease to others. If you are infected, but have no symptoms and haven’t been tested, you could be spreading SARS-CoV-2 and not know it.

“To reduce this risk … everyone, including people without symptoms, should be encouraged to wear nonmedical fabric face masks while in public,” according to Dr. Scott Gottlieb and other health policy experts, who wrote a paper for the American Enterprise Institute outlining a “road map for navigating through the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.”

Because of the shortage of N95 masks and other personal protective equipment, those supplies should reserved for doctors, nurses and other health care workers, at least until they become abundant, the AEI authors said in the March 29 paper.

Part of the success South Korea and Hong Kong have had in controlling the COVID-10 outbreak in their respective countries has been attributed to the widespread use of face masks.

A study published on March 20 in Lancet Respiratory Medicine (Shuo Feng, Chen Shen) also argued for universal use of face masks, supplies permitting:

“The WHO (World Health Organization) currently recommends that people should wear face masks if they have respiratory symptoms or if they are caring for somebody with symptoms. Perhaps it would also be rational to recommend that people in quarantine wear face masks if they need to leave home for any reason, to prevent potential asymptomatic or presymptomatic transmission.”

The authors also advocated that older adults and individuals with medical conditions should always wear face masks in public if available.

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Mike Moffitt is an SFGATE Digital Reporter. Email: moffitt@sfgate.com. Twitter: @Mike_at_SFGate