With hospitals in dire need of face masks and other equipment to keep them from contracting the coronavirus, President Donald Trump suggested an alternative for Americans who also want protection in public: Wear a scarf.
“It doesn’t have to be a mask,” Trump said at a press briefing Tuesday night. “You can use scarves. You can use something else over your face.”
The following evening, Trump repeated that advice, claiming without evidence that scarves are “highly recommended by the professionals.”
“Depending on the fabric, I think in a certain way a scarf is better,” Trump claimed.
There is currently little empirical evidence to back up Trump’s recommendation that a scarf or other covering can substitute for a face mask.
Doctors told CNBC that there are pros and cons to using masks, makeshift or otherwise, in public.
“As far as the general public is concerned, the do-it-yourself option of wearing a scarf or bandana may be the best we can do at this point,” said Dr. William Schaffner, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
Dr. Angela Hewlett of the Infectious Diseases Society of America said that wearing a scarf or bandana could protect others from the spread of the coronavirus. It might also keep people from touching their faces, she said.
“A scarf acts sort of like a handkerchief or a tissue,” Hewlett said. “If you’re wearing a scarf around your face, or another homemade mask, then there’s a chance that your secretions will be contained in that as opposed to being spread to the environment.”
Still, the doctors stressed that there is limited evidence that wearing alternative coverings in public can prevent transmission of COVID-19.
Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/01/coronavirus-trumps-idea-to-use-scarf-is-unproven-doctors-say.html