400M free N95 masks on the way
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration plans to distribute 400 million high-quality masks available to Americans for free starting next week in the hopes of offering better protection against the omicron variant of the coronavirus, the White House announced Wednesday.
The White House said N95 masks will be available for pickup at pharmacies and community health centers across the country by late next week. The administration will begin shipping masks at
the end of this week, and the program “will be fully up and running by early February,” the White
House said in a statement.
It’s not clear whether personnel at pharmacies and community health centers will help ensure such masks are properly fitted, and the White House didn’t disclose whether masks will be offered in various sizes.
This will be the largest allocation of free masks by the federal government since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Masks will come from the government’s Strategic National Stockpile, which contains more than 750 million such masks.
Public health experts repeatedly have warned that cloth masks don’t provide enough protection against the highly contagious omicron variant. They recommend people wear high-grade N95 or KN95 masks, though many Americans have been struggling to find them.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday upgraded its mask guidance, emphasizing that N95 or KN95 masks offer far more protection than cloth face coverings, though ut hasn’t formally recommended that Americans ditch cloth masks in favor of N95s.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky has stressed that the best mask is one that fits well.