The Biden administration is rejecting calls to change current guidelines that discourage the public from wearing N95 respirators, the high-filtration masks currently reserved for health care workers, although some manufacturers say a growing domestic surplus has gone unused.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters Wednesday that the agency still believed standard, well-fitting cloth masks were sufficient to curb the spread of COVID-19.

“For reasons supported by science, comfort, costs, and practicality, the CDC does not recommend routine use of N95 respirators for protection against COVID-19 by the general public,” said Dr. Walensky. She cited “abundant” research showing masks “now available to the general public are working.”

“It’s a highly engineered device and not everybody needs that,” said Dave Rousse, president of the Association …continued .
[Source: CBS News]