Health security

How Long Are We Going to Be Wearing Masks? We Asked the Experts

To help stem the dramatic spread of coronavirus throughout the United States, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has officially recommended that people wear cloth face masks in public, especially when proper social distancing (i.e. keeping six feet between you and the next person) isn't possible. The recommendation holds true for individuals over the age of two, while infants, who are at greater risk of suffocation from mask-wearing, should go mask-free. Wearing a mask properly lowers your risk of both contracting and transmitting COVID-19, so it's important for adults and older children to follow that recommendation. But how long will this new normal last? The CDC hasn't addressed exactly how long we'll be wearing masks over our noses and mouths as we go about our essential business and errands, so we asked experts for their predictions.