Infectious Disease Specialist Believes Indoor Masking Should Continue Despite Improving COVID Numbers
BOSTON (CBS) – Infectious disease specialist Dr. Paul Sax said that while COVID numbers continue to improve in Massachusetts, he still believes it's important to be cautious and leave certain protocols in place such as mask guidance.
Sax is the clinical director for the Division of Infectious Diseases at Brigham and Women's Hospital.
"I do want to remind people there still is plenty of COVID around," Sax said. "It's not nearly as safe as things were, for example, in the summer of 2021 or even the summer of 2020. But, we're definitely in a much better place than we were 3-4 weeks ago."
Sax said COVID wastewater data still shows levels similar to the peak of the Delta surge.
"Masking indoors, in public places in general, I don't think there's a reason necessarily to abandon that right now. We still have, for example, a lot of people in the hospital with COVID-19," Sax said.
Sax added that for schools, the issue is more complicated. He recognized there is a "risk-benefit" analysis in play for students, especially younger ones.
"I think on the youngest children I actually feel like we don't really have good data that masking of very young children helps them much at all, nor does it necessarily prevent the spread of the virus," Sax said. "It's a bit different for older kids and teenagers because you would expect masks to have the same effect as they would in adults."
