News > Cloth face masks are useless, use N95 masks, say US health experts

Cloth face masks are useless, use N95 masks, say US health experts

Prominent public health officials in the US have increasingly highlighted the limitations of cloth face masks, pushing for more effective respirator masks such as N95s as the Omicron variant is rapidly spreading across the country.

Officials encouraged the use of cloth masks in the spring of 2020 as a desperate measure to slow the spread of Covid-19 after previously recommending against masks and continued to boost them in the months after.