Surgical face masks provide inadequate protection against flu-like illnesses including Covid, and should be replaced by respirator-level masks – worn every time doctors and nurses are face to face with a patient, according to a group of experts urging changes to World Health Organization guidelines.
There is “no rational justification remaining for prioritising or using” the surgical masks that are ubiquitous in hospitals and clinics globally, given their “inadequate protection against airborne pathogens”, they said in a letter to WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“There is even less justification for allowing healthcare workers to wear no face covering at all,” they said.
At the height of the Covid pandemic an estimated 129bn disposable face masks were being used around the world every month, by the public and healthcare workers, with surgical masks the most widely available and recommended by most health authorities.
Respirators designed to filter tiny particles – such as masks meeting FFP2/3 standards in the UK or N95 in the US – should instead be standard practice for medical interactions, they said.
Source: The Guardian, 9 January 2026
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