Coronavirus update: Face masks may offer better protection than COVID-19 vaccine, says top US official

Coronavirus update: Face masks offer better protection than the Coronavirus vaccine against the deadly virus, said Director of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US Robert Redfield. Redfield has also described face masks as the “most powerful public health tool” against SARS-CoV-2, a virus that causes COVID-19, as per a report in Indian Express.

“We have clear scientific evidence they work, and they are our best defence. I might even go so far as to say that this face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against Covid-19 than when I take a vaccine,” Redfield stated this while responding to questions from American lawmakers during a Senate sub-committee hearing.

Meanwhile, Redfield has claimed that a Coronavirus vaccine in the US is unlikely to become widely available until the “late second quarter, or third quarter” of next year. “If you are asking me when is it going to be generally available to the American public so that we can begin to take advantage of vaccine to get back to our regular life, I think we are probably looking at third, late second quarter, third quarter 2021,” Redfield has said.

Redfield has exhorted people to continue wearing face masks even after a vaccine becomes available. He said the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic could be brought quickly under control if guidelines pertaining to wearing face masks are followed and adopted universally.

Earlier, the World Health Organization (WHO) had updated its guidance to recommend that governments ask everyone to wear fabric face masks in public areas where there is a risk of transmission of COVID-19 to help reduce the spread of the pandemic disease. In its new guidance, prompted by evidence from studies conducted in recent weeks, the WHO stressed that face masks were only one of a range of tools that can reduce the risk of viral transmission, and should not give a false sense of protection, as per a Reuters report.