The CDC, which advises wearing N95 masks when caring for patients with highly infectious diseases like tuberculosis, SARS, and COVID-19. Surgical masks are not designed to be sealed over the face, and therefore they do not offer wearers the same protection level that an N95 respirator does. N95 respirators and surgical masks are considered Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) used to protect the wearer from airborne particles, as well as contaminated liquids, in the case of surgical masks (medical).
Use cloth face coverings instead of surgical masks or N95 respirators, because these crucial supplies should be reserved for health care workers and other first responders. A 2008 study found that cloth face masks can be up to half as effective as surgical masks, and as much as 50 times less effective than N95 respirators. Supplies have stabilized since, but many Americans still use either cloth face masks or the skimpier surgical type rather than N95 or KN95 respirators.
N95s, which are not well fitted, provide a broader protection, and are in some cases comparable with surgical masks and cloth. N95 respirators offered higher levels of protection compared with other categories of face coverings tested; however, it is notable that the majority of N95 respirators failed to fit participants properly. On January 14, the agency released more details on differences among the masks, and confirmed that some — such as N95 respirators — are more protective than others, such as fabric masks and surgical masks.
Health-care workers wearing N95 respirators are required by law to have annual fit tests — checks to ensure that masks create a tight seal over a wearers face to prevent infiltration of contaminated air. Commonly worn by healthcare workers and first responders, N95 respirators can filter as much as 95% of droplets and particles from air, according to CDC data. Personnel using these various types of respirators when required to handle occupational hazards should keep their face hair neatly shaved along the face-sealing surfaces of the mask, and should not wear makeup (both can impede the correct sealing of the mask).
Compared with N95 or FFP2 respirators, which have very low particle penetrating rates (5%), surgical and similar masks show higher, and more variable, penetrating rates (30-70%) (2 3). Despite the lower submicron particle filtering performance, surgical and other N95 alternatives probably offer sufficient transmission protection for routine care.
Frontline physicians and critical health workers performing the highest-risk procedures should have access to the highest levels of protection available in NIOSH-approved N95 respirators; Sickbert-Bennett and colleagues4 demonstrated that the reuse and expiration of reprocessed N95 masks are safe and offer an excellent alternative to the standard, disposable N95 mask. Although cloth reusable masks were recommended until recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other experts recognize N95, KN95, or KF94 masks as providing the greatest protection in publicly accessible indoor spaces given the transmissibility of the Omicron variation of the SARS-CoV-2. Early on in the pandemic, the CDC and World Health Organization told the public to avoid wearing N95 respirators, a type of mask made from high-tech synthetic fibres that offer high levels of protection from virus-laden airborne particles called aerosols.