Universal Masking... A Strategy Whose Time Has Come and Gone, For Now

The Annals of Internal Medicine today published an opinion article that confirmed during the COVID-19 pandemic, the expanded use of facemasks as part of “universal masking” for healthcare personnel (HCP), patients, and visitors in healthcare settings was implemented to reduce the risk for morbidity and mortality associated with the spread of a novel virulent pathogen.

However, the context and conditions of the pandemic have changed dramatically, and evidence-based public health policy should also adapt in response.

The time has come to manage SARS-CoV-2 as we generally manage other endemic respiratory viruses in healthcare settings through correct and consistent application of Standard Precautions and Transmission-Based Precautions.

Moving away from universal masking policies should be accompanied by reconsidering other pandemic-era strategies, such as asymptomatic testing and resource-intensive contact tracing.

In conclusion, this article published on April 18, 2023, stated .... Interactions between humans and pathogens are inherently dynamic.

Therefore, they are constantly evolving, and we have achieved significant advancements in preventing and managing SARS-CoV-2 since the pathogen was initially identified in 2019.

In recognition of these achievements, the time has come to deimplement policies inappropriate for an endemic pathogen when the expected benefits of such policies are low.

Universal masking in health care is a policy whose time has come and gone ... for now.

Face mask research is posted by Coronavirus Today.