But if you're wearing a mask all day—and talking and sweating in it—then that mask may not be reusable. Currently, the CDC recommends that healthcare workers only reuse N95 masks up to five ...

The findings, published Aug. 24 in PLOS ONE, offer a potential way to mitigate N95 shortages during periods of high-demand — such as during a pandemic — since surgical masks are more widely ...

There’s a special category of “surgical N95” masks that are generally not available for sale to the public that the CDC says should continued to be reserved for health care settings.

Unlike cloth masks, you are not going to wash a surgical mask, an N95 or a KN95. You can re-wear them, but you should put them in a paper bag for about two days between uses.

Different situations may also call for different masks, Sobhanie says. “If you’re in an area that’s completely packed, then you may want to use a KN95 or N95 mask,” he says.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said Americans should wear the most protective mask they can, but stopped short of recommending an N95 or similar face covering.

With Omicron now exploding, some say they will take a close look at the numbers to decide whether to go to the N95 mask. "If the death rate is really high, then yeah, I'll probably switch over ...

Your next best option to an N95 mask is a disposable surgical mask. Those are meant for one-time-only use and should be disposed of properly after each wearing.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated their mask guidance advising Americans to “wear the most protective mask you can” to fight the spread of the omicron variant.

Peer reviewed and published scientific report. Lorenzo-Leal, Ana C, Selvarani Vimalanathan, and Horacio Bach. 2022. “Adherence of SARS-CoV-2 Delta Variant to a Surgical Mask and N95 Respirators.” ...

The N95 Surgical Mask and Particulate Respirator looks like a small vacuum cleaner bag you wear tightly on your face. But with good old American know-how, we can design face masks with dual uses.