HHS’s Giroir: Consensus on Mask Wearing Guidance Coming Soon

U.S. govt health experts are actively discussing whether all people should wear masks in public amid the coronavirus pandemic, HHS’s asst. secretary for health, Brett Giroir, tells Fox News.

• Giroir, who says he’s not ready to give his opinion on the matter yet, says issue is whether people who have Covid-19, but are not experiencing symptoms, can protect others by wearing a mask
• “I think we’ll have a consensus opinion very, very soon about that,” he says
• Separately, Anthony Fauci, director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, tells CNN that the White House virus task force will be discussing wider use of masks
  • Fauci says there’s still a shortage of masks and commercial ones should be prioritized for health-care workers
• NOTE: CDC officials are considering changing guidance to encourage people to cover their faces amid the pandemic, Washington Post reported earlier, citing an unidentified federal official

To contact the reporters on this story:
Jordan Fabian in Washington at jfabian6@bloomberg.net;
Vivek Shankar in Washington at vshankar3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Kasia Klimasinska at kklimasinska@bloomberg.net

Kim Chipman

© 2020 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. Used with permission.