As the COVID-19 epidemic spread across countries a debate arose about whether wearing masks really helps to prevent infections.
While in the U.S. the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised people on the appropriate instances to wear the N95 mask, in China people were being advised to wear a mask at all times.
The new coronavirus outbreak, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan and has spread throughout the world, has prompted people to buy medical face masks in the hopes of preventing infection.
Mask-wearers are even proudly posting pictures under #flumask on Instagram.
The coronavirus has been responsible for more than 7,400 deaths worldwide along with more than 186,000 infections.
Initially, U.S. experts said wearing face masks would not be effective largely because, according to public health workers, there was no sustained person-to-person transmission of the new coronavirus in the country.
The CDC also issued guidelines on two different kinds of face masks — surgical masks and N95 respirators — which are commonly worn by healthcare professionals and those who are already sick.
“It’s not foolproof, but it does keep you from coughing out infectious particles with any respiratory virus,” Dr. Marybeth Sexton, an assistant professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Emory University School of Medicine, told TIME.
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In China, wearing a face mask was mandatory in at least two provinces and the government there insisted early on in the epidemic that millions of residents wear protective face masks when they go out in public.
The difference in strategy has helped cut down COVID-19 infection cases in China.
