Pandemic expert says Americans will be wearing masks for ‘several years’
Eric Toner, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security says health experts won’t ask Americans to take off their masks any time soon. He said he's been preparing for an outbreak like the novel coronavirus as part of his work for years.
Eric Toner, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security says health experts won’t ask Americans to take off their masks any time soon. He said he's been preparing for an outbreak like the novel coronavirus as part of his work for years.
Johns Hopkins practices virus simulations as part of is preparedness protocol, with the goal of offering public health experts and policymakers a blueprint of what to do in a pandemic. One of those simulations took place last October when Toner and a team of researchers launched a coronavirus pandemic simulation in New York. They ran through various scenarios on how residents, governments, and private businesses would hypothetically react to the threat.
One thing that stood out to him: Face coverings are a vital defense to stop the spread of the COVID-19. He believes the virus won’t slow down in the U.S. even as states start to slowly reopen.
“There's going to be no summertime lull with a big wave in the fall,” he said as part of CNET’s Hacking the Apocalypse series. “It's clear that we are having a significant resurgence of cases in the summer, and they'll get bigger. And it'll keep going until we lock things down again.”
Toner said until there is a vaccine, communities’ best defense to fight it is through creating distance and wearing masks.
“I think that mask-wearing and some degree of social distancing, we will be living with — hopefully living with happily — for several years,” he said. “It's actually pretty straightforward. If we cover our faces, and both you and anyone you're interacting with are wearing a mask, the risk of transmission goes way down.”
The U.S. recently added about 43,000 positive COVID-19 cases to its more than 2.9 million total, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The death total has surpassed 130,000. Click here to read more.
Other related coronavirus developments:
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- Immunity to coronavirus can be 'short-lived,' expert warns
- EPA approves use of Lysol surface disinfectant products against the novel coronavirus
- Coronavirus hospitalizations in Texas hit new daily high, cases top 200,000
- Florida orders all its schools to reopen campuses in August after coronavirus closures
- Immunity to coronavirus can be 'short-lived,' expert warns
- EPA approves use of Lysol surface disinfectant products against the novel coronavirus
- Coronavirus hospitalizations in Texas hit new daily high, cases top 200,000
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