"They're very hard to breathe in when you wear them properly," Walensky said. "They're very hard to tolerate when you wear them for long periods of time."
The N95 masks are really designed for first responders.
You've probably seen people wearing them. The five layer masks come with a foam nose strip that covers much of your face.
Dr. Walensky, as well as Dr. Anthony Fauci, are still saying people should wear a mask, but say the general public doesn't need to wear the N95 ones because they're uncomfortable and hard to breathe in.
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They fear people won't want to wear masks at all after having a bad experience wearing an N95.
"I have spent a reasonable amount of time in an N95 mask. They're hard to tolerate all day every day," Walensky said. "And in fact, when you really think about how well people will wear them, I worry that if, if we suggest or require that people wear an N95, they won't wear them all the time."
"The most important thing is that everybody should be wearing a mask," Fauci said.
With the new COVID-19 variant, many people are wondering if you need to wear two masks.
The CDC says you don't need to do that, but again, they do recommend you wear at least one.
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