Science Magazine: Not wearing masks to protect against coronavirus is a ‘big mistake’

“The big mistake in the U.S. and Europe, in my opinion, is that people aren’t wearing masks. This virus is transmitted by droplets and close contact. Droplets play a very important role—you’ve got to wear a mask, because when you speak, there are always droplets coming out of your mouth. Many people have asymptomatic or presymptomatic infections. If they are wearing face masks, it can prevent droplets that carry the virus from escaping and infecting others.” Article Link: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/not-wearing-masks-protect-against-coronavirus-big-mistake-top-chinese-scientist-says?et_rid=490680101&et_cid=3263545 

– George Gao, Co-author of two widely read papers published in The New England Journal of Medicine that provided some of the first detailed epidemiology and clinical features of the disease, and three more papers on COVID-19 in The Lancet, director-general of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)