> Public health authorities like CDC don't recommend their use among people who are not infected See: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/index.html

> Public health authorities like CDC don't recommend their use among people who are not infected See: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/index.html Your link & the CDC don't say what you think they say. CDC's recommendations are that members of the uninfected public should not wear N95 masks. This should NOT be understood as: CDC says N95 masks are ineffective at preventing airborne infections of Covid-19. It IS the CDC saying: N95 masks are non-trivial to use correctly, require decontamination protocols or single-use replacement to avoid infection and contamination from used masks themselves (potentially full of virus particles), and protect against a threat many people are unlikely to be exposed to (close proximity infected persons) -- a mix of criteria that make them inefficient to recommend for general public use. As you see in the link above, CDC absolutely recommends N95+ respirators for EMS and healthcare workers, when working in close proximity to infected persons. But healthcare workers have a substantially higher airborne exposure risk, as well as professional support and training for properly using N95 masks.