Experts Explain How To Effectively Wear Two Face Masks

Masks are a part of daily life nowadays: you're doubtless an expert on elegantly slinging one on mid-stride. Now, Dr. Anthony Fauci M.D, the director of the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases and the nation's top infectious disease expert, has told NBC News that double masking — wearing two masks instead of one — "just makes common sense." Why? With new, more infectious variants of COVID spreading, doubling up reduces your chances of spreading COVID particles.

"Some of the new SARS-CoV2 variants appear to be more infectious and easier to transmit," Dr. Bob Bollinger M.D. M.P.H., a professor of infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins University and founding member of emocha health, tells Bustle. "So although we don’t have clear data yet, it makes sense that more effective masking might help."

You may have spotted everybody from Dr. Jill Biden to inaugural poet Amanda Gorman double-masking in recent weeks, but here's the lowdown on why you might want to do it too.