Your top questions about Covid-19 and vaccines

Are cloth masks any good anymore? With the more contagious Omicron variant, should I be wearing a cloth mask, surgical mask, KN95 or N95?

“Cloth masks are little more than facial decorations. There’s no place for them in light of Omicron,” CNN medical analyst and emergency physician Dr. Leana Wen said.

“We need to be wearing at least a 3-ply surgical mask,” she said, such as the ones often sold in drugstores or grocery stores and have an adjustable nose wire. “You can wear a cloth mask on top of that, but do not just wear a cloth mask alone.”

Ideally, in crowded places, “you should be wearing a KN95 or N95 mask,” Wen said. They include materials such as polypropylene fibers that act as both mechanical and electrostatic barriers to help prevent the spread of tiny particles.

But as of January 12, the CDC’s website still listed cloth masks with “two or more layers of washable, breathable fabric” as an option for helping mitigate the spread of Covid-19.

“CDC continues to recommend that any mask is better than no mask, and we do encourage all Americans to wear a well-fitting mask to protect themselves and prevent the spread of Covid-19,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said January 12.

“We are preparing an update to the information on our mask website to best reflect the options that are available to people … and the different levels of protection different masks provide.”

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