PROTECTING OTHERS BIT IS THE PART THEY HATE:

Masks are most effective at preventing the person wearing them from spreading the virus to others, explains Sandra Bliss Nelson, an infectious disease specialist at Mass General Hospital, but "as we have gotten towards more transmissible variants with a higher prevalence of airborne spread, protecting the wearer has taken more priority."

The idea, of course, is that masks filter the virus out of the air before that air is breathed in, which is especially important if the pathogen is believed to be aerosolized. Much of the research behind masking in healthcare comes from decades ago when tuberculosis outbreaks were common, explains Lisa Brosseau, a retired public health scientist who consults for the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.

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